The Seldom Seen
by Avenging Neko
Summary: A series of seldom seen portions of unlife in the Hellsing Estate. Not necessarily connected, just fun little snippets.
1. Training Incident

**The Seldom Seen  
**

**DISCLAIMER: ** As everybody everywhere knows, I don't own Hellsing. I make no claim on any characters unless they're specifically OCs. And I'm not planning on adding any, either. :P

_**AN:**I hope you like this first little scene. :]_

_I apologize in advance if there are any confusing past-present tense mix ups, it's the way I write, and I'll do my best to correct it before posting each chapter._

_For those curious, I tend to use a smidgen of the anime, but mostly the OVA. These aren't set it any particular timeline. However future chapters may be based on OVA scenes._

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_01: Training Incident_

Seras Victoria walks calmly down the brightly lit hallway towards the main training room for the human troops under Hellsing's command. Walter had left a note on her table – next to her untouched blood packet – to meet him there as soon as she awoke for the night.

Pushing open the door, she leaps to the left instinctively as a body flies into the space she had previously occupied. Blinking rapidly, she straightens from her half crouch and scans the room's occupants for the familiar figure of the butler.

"Ah, Miss Victoria. Just in time. We need your assistance in using a pouncing vampire's momentum against them. This method, of course, does not work as well for the more experienced midians…" Walter's smooth voice lectures to the gathered troops. "But FREAKS will hardly be as capable of controlling their form as the real thing."

A spattering of nervous chuckles fill the room as some of the newer recruits eye the blue eyed blonde skeptically.

Seras wasn't quite sure to feel insulted that she was being used as a FREAK substitute, or grateful that her Master wasn't here to see this odd little session.

**'_I'd say 'both', Police Girl, but I think I'll sit and watch this one for my own amusement.'_**

Great, just great, her Master was eavesdropping on her thoughts again, and now he was going to watch this humiliation just for spite.

"Miss Victoria, if you will?" Walter's voice cuts through her internal grumbling and she blinks, canting her head to the side briefly as she sizes up the butler before nodding and springing forward abruptly – causing more than a few gasps from the newbies – only to see the elderly man duck to the side and feel a hand on her ankle before the world spins and she hits the padded wall with a thump.

Wicked laughter reverberates inside her head as she peels herself out of the Seras sized dent in the wall. Peering at the Angel of Death over her shoulder, and seeing the slight dip of his head, she spins in place and uses the vertical surface as a springboard to increase her speed.

Walter ducks and she flies over his head, landing with inhuman ease on all fours. Biting back the urge to growl at the badly muffled chuckles of the troops, she does an about face and lunges again, this time with her hands outstretched to grab her prey in mid air.

Again she is deflected, this time with a hand clamping over her elbow to swing her violently into the less padded floor.

That one actually hurt.

"Now, as we have demonstrated, there are various ways to avoid a lunge for your throat, but Miss Victoria is, of course, going easy on us. Who would like to try their luck?" Walter asks, almost-purple eyes gleaming wickedly as he surveys the suddenly silent infantrymen.

After a minute of awkward silence, one of the more experienced men steps forward obligingly, "I'll give it a go, Sir."

Straightening to her fully unimpressive height, Seras tracks the man with her body; pouncing as he clears the crowd.

He yelps and jumps back, only to realize that he fell into her trap, hitting the floor with a thud and a leering vampire situated on his chest.

Slow, rather sarcastic clapping fills the room as Alucard leans out of the wall with a wolfish grin on his face.

"Ah, Alucard, I was wondering if you'd make an appearance." Walter remarks blandly.

"I decided to offer my … services." The sadistic elder vampire replies with a smirk, "Come on, Police Girl, let's see if you can catch _me_."

The madness glowing in his eyes intimidates her a bit, but she swallows her fear and clambers off the solider with a salute, "Sir, yes Sir, my Master."

At his arched brow, she lunges… and hits the wall.

**'**_**If you can't even touch me, Police Girl, you will be punished for your incompetence.'** _ His voice hiss into her head with a casual air of menace.

All hesitation drains out of her as she spins with unnatural speed, pushing off the wall to shoot forward, but to the left, to land next to her Master, and attempt to sweep his feet out from under him. He laughs and simply lifts his left foot in the air, aiming a playful kick at the girl to send her scurrying backwards like a crab.

"I know you can do better than that." Baring his sharp teeth in a parody of a smile, he beckons her closer with a crook of his finger.

Feeling a curious tickle in her throat, the blonde realizes with some shock that she had growled at the Master vampire without even being aware of it. Shifting from foot to foot, eyes darting about nervously, she throws herself to the side with a shriek as Alucard flings a pair of weights at her to punish her dalliance.

"Master!" Seras protests, leaping backwards and practically attaching herself to the wall as a set of dumbbells is tossed next.

"In a battle situation your opponents won't sit idly by and wait for you to pounce and rip out their throats, Police Girl." Alucard drawls with a vicious twist to his lips, a series of smaller hand weights thud into the wall, following her panicked wall climbing until he grew bored of his game of target practice and a heavier disk plants itself in front of her.

Shrieking, she leaps off the wall and realizes with horror that she was aimed right at him. Forcing herself not to cringe and close her eyes, she grits her teeth and splays her fingers wide to provide a better shock absorber for the inevitable impact with the floor.

Alucard tsks and raises one gloved hand calmly upwards, grabbing the girl by the face and swinging her into the floor with a patronizing smile. "Sloppy."

Shaking her head dazedly in an attempt to clear it, she groans and yelps in pain as he kicks her into the wall, wincing as a wet snap indicates at least one broken rib. Ugh. That hurt.

Something warm and tangy fills her mouth and she realizes with shock that she had bitten through her lip. Swallowing the coppery liquid reflexively with a muffled moan in the back of her throat, she shivers, feeling strange.

"Tick, tock, Police Girl. Time is wasting." Alucard's voice breaks her haze and she spins in place to face her Sire with a wary look on her pale face. At his arched brow, she swallows again, the lingering burn of blood on her tongue sliding down into her stomach with a jolt.

Lunging to the right, she pivots in mid air to land on her right foot and launch herself in a more horizontal position to the ground at his left; putting her left hand down to swing herself upright with the momentum, she leaps with grim determination for his legs.

Only to meet his knee face first. God!

Something dark flares in her mind, hissing at her to bite him.

_What?!_ The hell was _wrong _with her?

Her Master wastes no time in kicking her into the far wall, a flat unimpressed look in his red eyes.

That dark something seethes to the surface and seizes control of her body with frightening ease. Growling outright, eyes flashing crimson, the blonde drops to all fours and bares her fangs in a snarl, startled and almost freezing up in mid lunge as her Sire snarls in answer, his eyes flaring brightly in warning.

The dark thing adds even more speed to her already super human reflexes, earning a more approving glance from her Sire as she lands just shy of impact to spring herself into the air above his head and swing her foot down in a vicious swipe at his skull.

He laughs as the impact sends him back a good three feet. Crooking his finger at her rather mockingly, he laughs louder as she charges blindly at him. Reaching out for her face a second time, he flings the girl into the crowd of spectators carelessly – looking down with an arched brow at the slight sting left behind. She had cut him with her little baby fangs! How amusing.

Seras had completely forgotten about the watching soldiers, so absorbed was she in the mock fight with her Master. That … was a mistake.

The instant her Sire's blood hit her tongue she convulsed – hands flying to her face and black claws digging furrows in her cheeks as her senses explode painfully. For such a blood starved fledgling to taste her Master's essence while already in the midst of a minor blood thrall from her cut lip… It was madness.

The soldiers stare at the blonde girl rather fearfully, having parted like the red sea at her approach, one of the men actually turns to vomit against the wall at the sight of her teeth through the holes in her cheeks.

"Miss Victoria!" Walter exclaims at the sight of her self inflicted injuries, "are you quite alright?"

Seras turns feral red eyes upon him with a guttural snarl in her throat. Thirsty. She was so very thirsty and surrounded by prey. Lunging at the elderly man in a blur of color, she shrieks as he jumps back and jerks his hands in a strange motion; razor sharp wires cutting into her arms to fling her back to the floor.

"Police Girl." Alucard deadpans, arms crossing over his chest with a disapproving look on his face.

The fledgling doesn't heed the elder's words, rolling and snapping the wires to lunge into the gathering of defenseless men – for they had left their weapons in the barracks, not expecting to need them indoors while not on assignment. The men start screaming and shouting and running for the door as the insane vampire crashes into their ranks and pins a newer recruit to the floor, teeth buried in his femoral artery and drinking savagely. The man screams bloody murder and writhes like a landed fish, other leg flailing kicks at the ravenous creature draining his blood.

"Alucard!" Walter snaps at the tamed monster, demanding he stop the fledgling as was his duty.

The red clad male sneers and is suddenly gone, reappearing over the pinned soldier and swinging his booted foot into Seras' jaw and throat to send her flying off the prone – not to mention more than half dead – human and into the floor. Appearing over the blonde, his foot slams down between her breasts with a sickening crack, pinning her to the floor with a growl.

"Time and place, fledgling." His tone is glacial, ignoring the clamor of the men around them as he stares down at the writhing blonde, unimpressed with her futile attempts to harm him by clawing at his ankle. Kicking his other foot at her left hand and pulverizing it like sandstone, he smirks at her howl of pain and pins the other, temporarily uninjured, hand beneath his boot.

"If you don't stop misbehaving I'll be forced to **punish** you, Childe." Her Master warns, staring into her senseless, mad orbs scornfully.

Something flickers, like recognition, in those burning rubies and his Childe voices a half purring mewl in query.

"That's right, I'm your Master." Grinding his heel into her broken ribs warningly, he bares his teeth in a blood thirsty grin.

Seras whines and turns her head to the side submissively, mind still lost under the crushing depths of blood lust and feral, primitive instincts.

Crooking a brow, the dark haired male's lips twist into a malicious smirk as he steps back, "Heel, girl."

The blonde rolls to her knees, hands lifted protectively to her chest as she quivers obediently at her Sire's feet. The bustling meat bags catch her gaze and she stares at them hungrily, clicking her teeth together with little whimpering noises bubbling in her throat.

Alucard laughs and wraggles his finger from side to side mockingly. "No, bad." Wicked amusement lights his hellish gaze from within, making him quite the intimidating sight to behold.

Seras gazes up at him with wide cherry red eyes, still lost in the darkness of her own mind, and his grin turns positively poisonous as he reaches down and runs his fingers through her hair in a condescending manner before fisting the short sun bright locks and slamming her face first into the floor.

**'_Wakey wakey Police Girl.'_**

**'_Master?'_**

"Yeeeeesss…" He hisses, staring at the back of his progeny's head, voice echoing in her ears and her mind commandingly. **_'It's time to stop playing hunter and wake up like a good girl.'_**

**'_Wha..?'_**

Seras' consciousness swims slowly towards the surface, guided by the pull of her Master's mind. Oh god, her chest hurt, and her hand! What happened? "Master..?" She whimpers, nose mashed into the padded floor, "What happened?"

"A training incident." He replies with a smirk, staring over his shoulder at Walter meaningfully.

The Butler gives a stiff half bow, face creased with dark emotions. Sir Integra would be informed at once, and the elderly man would report Alucard's words and their meaning to the Hellsing heir to seek referendum for the girl's actions through her Sire first or there would be hell to pay.

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_So, there it is. Installment number one. Feedback is appreciated, and helps inspire me. ;)  
I already have a few ideas lined up for other chapters, but feel free to mention something if you like. Never know, I might just write it. :P_

_Thanks for reading!_


	2. Drawn To You

The Seldom Seen

_**AN:**_I freely admit that this is mostly fluff that poppedinto my head when I couldn't sleep. I did look it over, but not as thoroughly as the first chapter, so forgive me if there are any werid tenses or typos.  
Thank you for the reviews, they really made my day. :] I hope you enjoy this silly little tidbit.

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_02: Drawn To You_

Seras Victoria hummed tunelessly to herself as she took off her jacket and hung it over the back of her chair, grabbing a rag from the table and shoving her arm inside her precious harkonnen to polish the cannon to finish her boredom induced cleaning routine. Gradually, her humming changed; taking on a rhythm and melody all its own. Finished with the task, she reassembled the massive gun and placed it out of tripping range against the wall near her wardrobe. The blonde glanced around her spotless room and frowned, fingers curling into loose fists at her sides as she began to pace.

Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth…

…And then she was leaving the room, feet carrying her off with a mind of their own. Her humming grew louder and louder in her ears until she realized with some shock that it wasn't just in her head. Standing outside the door to her Master's chambers, Seras cracked the door open to look inside for the source of the music.

There sat her Master at a grand looking piano, fingers flying across the keys in a haunting melody. The fledgling inched her way inside, gently closing the door behind her so as not to make a sound, and padded closer on bare feet; inexplicably drawn to her Sire by the tune that had reached down the many hallways and rooms between them into her mind.

Seeing no other chairs except for his throne like one by the end table, and feeling that perching there uninvited would be too bold, the blonde knelt on the floor by the piano bench and shifted into a more comfortable position with her back resting between the stout legs supporting the padded seat and her Master. Leaning her head back and folding her legs Indian style, - _'criss cross applesauce' _ floats in her head out of the blue - closed her eyes and just **listend** to the music.

_**'Police Girl.' **_ Alucard's voice whispered, curling around her thoughts in acknowledgement of her presence.

'_**Master.'**_ Seras hummed in reply, craning her head back further still until her blonde locks are crumpled into the plush covered bench and brushing lightly against her Master's left hip.

The pair stayed like that for long moments, the ancient male tickling the ivories and his fledgling basking in the instrument guided pocket of serenity. Alucard's hands stilled finally and silence filled the cavernous room. Seras cracked an eye open to gaze at her Sire enquiringly, to which he reached down and hooked his fingers in the back of her plain white tee, yanking the girl onto the bench beside him. "You play, Police Girl."

The buxom blonde looked down at the keys and shifted awkwardly, "I don't know how, Master. The orphanage didn't have extra money for instruments…" She trailed off, frowning a little, "I always wanted to learn, though." She whispered to her self, index finger lightly tapping one of the white keys between the two black keys.

"That note is called a D, the one to the right is an E and the one to the left is a C." Alucard informed blithely, settling back to watch his Childe explore the piano.

"What about this one, Sir?" Seras asked, tapping the first black key in the set of three to her right.

"An F sharp, also known as a G flat, Police Girl."

She smiled and played the C, D, E, and Fsharp one at a time, before frowning and playing it over, but changing the Fsharp to the white key next to it. There, that sounded a bit better, she thought, adding the other white key to it's right.

Alucard's gloved hand reached out and she flinched slightly, thinking he would reprimand her for playing badly, only to watch raptly as his fingers tap out a simple melody. Trying it herself, she frowned and glared suspiciously at the keys when it sounded wrong. Tapping it out a second time, slower, her Sire's hand captured hers and moved the errant finger to the appropriate key to complete the tune correctly.

Feeling a little braver, the blonde set both hands on the keys and began to play around with it, sneaking glances every now and then at her Master to check his reaction to her clumsy attempts at music.

A hand rested on the top of her head and ruffled her blonde locks lightly, sending a delicate shiver through her small frame. Humming in the back of her throat, happy with the secretly coveted attentions of her Master, the girl leaned into the touch.

"I didn't know you could play the piano, Master." Seras murmured, curiosity driving her to break the silence.

"There's a lot of things about me you don't know, Police Girl." Wicked amusement filled his tone, fingers tightening their grip on her skull warningly.

"Yes Sir, sorry, Sir." The fledgling replied, dropping her gaze back to her feet. He didn't want her asking, apparently.

He made a sound in the back of his throat, somewhere between a _tsk_ and a growl, and stood. "The Victorian age was known for its love of music." Was all he offered as an explanation, stalking over towards his throne-chair and draping his long body across it negligently, legs thrown over the arm rests. "So, Police Girl, what prompted this visit?" He questioned, yellow sunglasses appearing in his hand and twirled by the ear piece in mid air. _**'Such a distant little fledgling I have.'**_ His voice mocked in her head.

"I…" She trailed off, looking away, "I don't know. The music I guess, Sir." His other words confused her, didn't he want her to stay away? He never showed any interest in her company outside of the occasional training and missions anyways.

"Mmm." Her Sire hummed noncommittally, crimson gaze raking over her form. "Unrestrained by mortality, we have countless years to devote to our studies, isn't that right, Police Girl? The piano seems to agree with you." Sliding the glasses part way up his nose, his free hand reaches out for the ever full glass ofbloodwine and lifts it to his lips. _**'Is it so terrble a thing, Police Girl, to be in my presence?'**_

She stared at him, mouth gaping slightly, before she smiled and ducked her head, "No, my Master, not like this." Swiveling in her seat to face the piano once more, the fledgling began to play again, experimenting with different note combinations and even the three pedals at her feet.

She couldn't quite explain it, she was just drawn to him during the lull in missions, drawn to him and the piano she had never seen here before during her brief visits to report that Sir Integra or Walter requested his presence. It felt… nice.


	3. April Fools, Kitten

The Seldom Seen

**AN:** This one... might be a little twisted, haha. Comedy and blood. A perfect combination, don't you think?  
I've still got a few ideas in mind for the next couple chapters of loosely connected scenelets, but suggestions are welcome. :]

As a general disclaimer, yes, I did borrow some ideas and lines from various places, but I don't mean anything by it. :P  
A cookie for the person who can guess the most references!

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_03: April Fools, Kitten_

Seras tossed and turned in her coffin bed, sheets tangling around her long legs as a frown pulled at her features. The girl was dreaming, and it was even stranger than when the 'spirit of her gun' visited her!

_Seras scampered on all fours, tiny paws working double time to keep up with the large cinnamon brown male cat with a police hat and badge, and a gun belt around his fluffy waist. "Simon, wait up!" She mewled, short blonde fur fluffing in agitation. Her own hat had fallen across one of her eyes and the gun looked comically large compared to her kitten sized body._

"_No time, Seras, we got a report of a K9 assault in the neutral condos!" The burly tom yowled over his shoulder as he leaped at the side of a building to fling himself around the corner without breaking his acre eating gait. Seras hissed slightly, cheeks puffing up as she scampered even faster. Damned dogs and their territory disputes!_

_ When the pair arrived, the police girl panting heavily and out of breath, they stared in horror at all the fluff and blood lining the plaza. Good Cod, it was a massacre! And there, in the middle of it all, was a rottweiler with a white mouse perched on his head. The mouse wore a lab coat and had a strange device in his paws. "That'll teach you to look down on me!" He squeaked in a high pitched voice, baring his sharp little teeth menacingly at the dismembered corpses scattered about. "Now I have the power, and no one can stop me!" He burst into a fit of maniacal giggles that sounded like a clown on helium._

_Simon growled low in his throat and reached for his gun, firing in a rage at the rodent and his canine flunky. "You bastard!"_

_Seras hissed as the bullets flew wide and missed, her fur stood on end, making her appear twice as large, before movement caught her eye and she shrieked, "SIMON!"_

_Another dog, a black lab by the looks, had lain in wait for police interference, and charged Simon with jaws gaping. The lab tackled the hefty tom and clamped his teeth into the officer's neck. Seras watched in horror as her partner was killed right before her eyes and she felt tears dampening the fur on her cheeks as she hastily scrambled for her gun and fired point blank into the murdering mongrel's left eye, dropping him like a stone over the remains of her former feline in arms._

_ "A police girl? Kill her, you fools!" The mouse shrieked, hitting buttons furiously on his little remote. Seras yowled and backed herself against a wall, gun trembling in her shaky paws. She wouldn't run, damnit, she was going to take that bastard down or die trying! …Like Simon._

_Just then, a pale golden canary fluttered down to perch on a bench at the edge of the massacre, cold blue eyes calculating as she twisted her head to the side. "Alucard." She whistled, voice calm. "Fetch."_

_A large black hound burst out of no where, red eyes glowing demonically as he charged the rottweiler and tore off his right foreleg in an explosive spray of blood. Shadows erupted from the beast, writing menacingly and spearing the other mongrels attempting to gang up on the beast attacking their boss. Seras hunched her shoulders and hissed as her blue eyes locked with the burning depths of the Alucard creature._

'_**Police Girl...'**_

With a shriek, Seras jolted up from her covers, misjudging her strength and literally leaping into the air. Landing on all fours, she shook her head vigorously from side to side before blinking. _What..?_ Were those… whiskers?! Raising a hand to her face, she stared wide eyed at her fuzzy blonde paw and shrieked bloody murder, the sound escaping as a yowl of discontent.

'_**MASTER!'**_

"You yelled, Police Girl?" Alucard drawled, drifting out of the floor with a smug smirk on his pale face… Only to have a sunshine yellow growling ball of fur attach itself to said face in a flurry of claws and blood. He laughed and reached up to scruff the kitten, the deep gouges in his face healing instantly as he stared at her amusedly. "My, how fascinating. Did you change on purpose?" He crooned, baring his teeth in a parody of a smile.

The kitten mewled, then wiggled her nose in distaste, shaking her head in the negative. Dangling like that was getting a bit uncomfortable, and she mewed again, tail tucked up between her back legs.

Alucard smirked and tucked the kitten in the pocket of his coat, chuckling in amusement at how miniscule she looked there. Seras glanced up, then down, then flexed her claws in the crimson fabric before wriggling around to face her Master's chest. Reaching one paw up, she sunk the curved needle-claws into the fabric and pulled lightly. With a smug purr, the kitten crawled her way up to his shoulder where she perched like a blonde fuzzy parrot.

"Getting comfy, are we, _Kitten_?" He murmured, turning to watch her with half an eye. My but her Master looked enormous this close up! Ignoring the taunt, she lifted a paw to lick the back of it in a distinctly feline gesture of dismissal. His chuckle rumbled in her ears and vibrated in her little bones. "My Master calls, Police Girl. Let's see what she wants tonight, hmm? Perhaps a mission of blood…" He trailed off with a disturbing smile twisting his lips back to show off his razor sharp teeth; a predator's glee at bloodshed and death. The kitten nodded and curled her hind claws lightly into his shoulder as he began walking towards the door and up the stairs.

The pair earned many an odd look and more than a handful of double takes. Who could blame the domestic staff, after all? It wasn't often one saw Alucard, let alone walking down the hall casually with an adorable fuzz ball perched on his shoulder. Most were too shocked to truly react, fearing that if they laughed the sadistic male would retaliate. The rather vicious smirk on his face was further reason to not do or say anything if they valued their lives.

Alucard barged into the office as though he owned the place, brushing past Walter to stand in front of his Master's desk, red eyes intent on the human's face.

"Where is Seras? I specifically told you to come with h-… why is there a kitten on your shoulder, Servant?" Integra demanded, eyes narrowing behind her spectacles dangerously.

"A kitten? Oh no…" Walter moaned, sneezing not two seconds later. Another sneeze followed before the poor man could even retrieve the handkerchief in his pocket, chased swiftly by a flurry of five clumped together, "You know I'm allergic." He wheezed from behind the cloth held over his lower face. "If you'll excuse me, Sir Integra?" He enquired politely, sneezing again with tears coming to his squinched eyes. The Hellsing heiress nodded and waved her hand in dismissal, allowing the elderly man to flee to more habitable quarters. Seras chirped a meow and crouched, wriggling her hind end side to side as her own blue eyes watched the play of light on the signet rings on Integra's waving hand. The kitten leaped, and fell comically short, scrabbling at the edge of the desk rather desperately before clawing her way up to the relative safety of the desk top, and promptly pouncing on the shiny gold and black pen Sir Integra used to sign her paperwork.

Alucard laughed and laughed as the blonde woman stared nonplussed at the frolicking fuzz ball messing up her papers. That shade of gold was rather unusual for a cat… Staring suspiciously at her Servant, Integra reached out and scruffed the kitten, staring at familiar looking blue eyes and the rather excessively large incisors in her slightly open mouth. "Is this ... _thing_ what I think it is?" She demanded, shaking the tiny thing slightly as she glared at the red clad vampire.

Seras mewled and tucked her legs and tail tighter to her belly, ears flattening to her skull in distress. Alucard gave a negligent shrug and held out his hand for the little feline, saying nothing until the Hellsing heiress rolled her eyes in disgust and dropped the thing into his grasp. "It seems the Police Girl tapped into her powers while sleeping. Isn't it fascinating?" The male replied at last, watching amusedly as the kitten clambered up his arm to his shoulder. "I rather like her this way, don't you Master?" His perfectly white teeth flashed at her mockingly, "So much quieter and easier to handle."

In response to his words, Seras tip toed behind his head and stood up to rest her front paws on the brim of his hat. Shifting her weight slightly, she leaped up and managed somehow to work her way up to the top of the fedora to settle in the groove there and stare down expectantly at Sir Integra for their orders.

Alucard and Integra shared identical expressions of amusement at the fledgling's antics, though Alucard's mirth was incited further by the look on his Master's face.

"Well, my Master, where are you sending us tonight?" The vampire crooned, a dark edge to his words as he watched the woman intently. Sir Integra's features smoothed to neutral blankness as she picked up a paper from her desk and glanced over its contents. "There's been a new string of burglaries in a residential district not far from here. In the last house a crude message was painted in blood, something to the effects of 'can't catch me' and a severed pigs head placed over the banister. Rumors are also rising of the local homeless going missing have fueled our suspicions of vampiric activity. My orders are simple, Servant. Search and destroy, now go."

Alucard laughed and clapped his hands together in glee, the symbols on the backs of his gloves glowing red. Crossing an arm over his chest, he bent his head slightly with a purr of "Yes, my Master." before vanishing, and taking the Police Girl with him.

* * *

In a peaceful neighborhood with no history of crime or violence, a little house sits. Inside this house are a pair of FREAKS who snuck out of the base camp for a night of mischief and blood. It's not as though the others would miss them, right?

The family was dead, sprawled on the floor in a pool of their own blood in the living room with the big screen tv flickering silently, playing commercials. And then came a knock at the door. The male FREAK glanced at his girlfriend and got up, walking down the hall to stare at the door hungrily, "Seconds… Who is it?" He called the latter half loudly.

"Oh, you know…" A deep voice crooned, the wood warping with unnatural shadows, "A real fucking vampire." Stepping through the portal, Alucard's yellow glasses glinted in the dim lighting and he smirked.

The FREAK yelped and bolted back to the living room and his partner, nearly pissing himself from the sickening waves of darkness emanating from the red clad nosferatu. The girl shrieked as she sensed the true vampire's presence, and the pair bolted for the kitchen from the door they entered, only to find it locked.

"What a pathetic pair of sniveling cowards." Alucard sneered, prowling towards his prey slowly to draw out the encounter further for his own amusement. "Police Girl, even in such a shape, you are more a vampire than these _things_, why don't you show them what it means to be a blood sucker?" A meow was his answer as the kitten stood and arched her back, her fur standing on end to give her a more fearsome appearance.

Alucard laughed.

"Never mind how it's locked, just break it down!" The male howled at his partner, picking up a chair and swinging it at the window, only to stare in disbelief as the wood splinters into matchsticks upon impact. What the hell?!

A chill went through the pair of FREAKS as Alucard made his appearance in the doorway, his laughter turning their blood to ice. Turning to stare at the creature, the male's gaze drifts up to the source of the hissing noise, and stares at the blonde fuzzball standing on the other's hat. ",,,What." It wasn't even a question as his first response was incredulity.

Alucard's laughter grew louder still, and the kitten's eyes glowed red and her fangs elongated to frankly ridiculous lengths. Saber toothed kittens and red coated nosferatu. What was wrong with this picture?

"Sic 'em, Police Girl." Alucard commanded, blocking the exits with his impressively tall frame and powers.

The kitten meowed, the sound cresendoing into an unnatural shriek similar to nails on a chalk board. Leaping from her Master's hat in a blur of yellow, the cat attached herself to the male FREAK's face and dug her claws in deeply.

"What the hell?! Get the bloody thing off me!" He yelped, fingers scrabbling for purchase on the fluffy body, trying to throw the animal to the floor. "Oh my god!" The female shrieked, staring in disbelief at the blood practically gushing down from her partner's face to stain his smeared shirt even further with the crimson substance. "Who are you? **What** are you?" She screamed at Alucard, diving at her companion to assist him in removing the demonic kitten trying to kill him.

"Merely the instrument of your demise." Was the offhanded response to her shrieking, the kitten's Master settling into the doorjamb and folding his arms over his chest with his fangs showing in wicked amusement. Tonight was glorious, indeed.

With the female pulling the kitten from a better angle, Seras slid off the male's face with a spurt of blood. He moaned and collapsed to the floor weakly. Likely to die of exsanguination. The weakling.

The ball of blood covered fluff turned on the female with another shriek of nails on a chalkboard, and began a valiant attempt to decapitate her hand at the wrist by chewing through it. The girl screamed and began to slam her hand and the kitten into the table, hoping the blunt force trauma would force it to release her. Sickening cracks filled the air as bones shattered, but the supply of fresh blood from her victim swiftly healed the undead feline and she persevered.

Alucard's attention span drew near its peak and he frowned, "As amusing as this was, Police Girl, I've grown bored. Finish it or I'll do it for you." He reached into his jacket and pointed the Cassul at the remaining FREAK with a sneer,

'_**Sir, yes Sir, my Master.'**_

Giving up her hold on the half eaten wrist, the blood coated kitten scurried her way up the girl's arm in a flash and leaped across her throat with claws unsheathed. A veritable geyser of red poured from the deep slice and the FREAK collapsed with a gurgle, fingers twitching helplessly.

Two shots echo through the kitchen and the wanna be vampires turn swiftly to dust.

"You got rather messy playing with your food, _kitten_, perhaps you need a bath?" At her horrified look Alucard burst into another fit of laughter and swooped down on the little thing, capturing her in his large hands with a cruel lift to his lips. "Yes, I think a bath is in order."

The duo vanished through another portal, the only sign they were ever there a mysterious scattering of blonde hairs that matched no animal or human on record.

* * *

'_**No, Master, please! Not a bath!'**_ Seras mewled piteously, quivering in his palms.

"Look at you, you're positively drenched in blood." Alucard purred, ignoring her mental pleas as he appeared in his fledgling's room and walked into the shower, his shirt, jacket, and boots vanishing to leave him in just his dove grey pants and rune marked gloves. "You'll never be able to get it all off yourself, and there's nothing more uncomfortable than dried blood in fur." He continued gleefully, sliding the frosted glass door shut behind him to lock them in the shower, and turning the water on hot.

'_**No, no, no, nooo… Please?'**_ Seras begged, feline instincts screaming at her to escape the threat of water. Ugh!

Her Master ignored her of course and stepped into the heated spray with a smirk, holding his fledgling with one hand and scrubbing his fingers through the deep red fur with the other with sadistic glee until the water ran clear and his Childe regained her original color. Not quite done with the torture, he chuckled menacingly and squirted some of Seras' shampoo on top of her head before attacking with her loofah and transforming her into a ball of suds. Her head, back, tail, belly, legs… He even amused himself scrubbing the edge between her little pink toe pads; reveling in her meowing and mental wailing of embarrassment. Finally he deemed her all clean and turned the water off, reforming a second pair of pants completely dry on his body as he stepped from the enclosed cubicle and generously grabbed a towel to man handle his kitten with.

"Tonight was fun, Police Girl, I might just keep you a kitten from now on to amuse myself." He leered down at the waterlogged bundle in his arms.

'_**What?! No, Master, please! I don't want to be a kitten anymore. Please!'**_

He laughed and she panicked, mind falling into chaos at the prospect of spending the rest of eternity as the kitten her old police team called her. It felt like there were three different beings in her head! Her lingering humanity, the vampire that grew ever more powerful with each drop of blood she drank, and now the instincts of a feisty house cat!

Having finished drying the girl until she resembled a dandelion ripe for the plucking to blow the enticing fluff away on the wind, he drops her on the bed and leans down to leer at her with glowing red eyes.

"April Fools, kitten."

With that he was gone and she was in her human shape once more. And naked! Shrieking in horror, she dives under the covers of her bed and scrambles for her pyjamas left behind when she transformed the first time. Master was insane! What kind of prank was that?!

…Although it did feel nice when he had petted her…

Damnit!

"Master you're mean!" Seras wailed, cheeks cherry red in embarrassment and a hint of outraged disbelief at how far he'd go for a laugh. "Bloody vampires…"


	4. I Will Not Go Mad, Not Go Mad

The Seldom Seen

**_AN:_ **I felt bad that I haven't written anything in days. I hit a block on what was going to be chapter four, so I wrote this instead.  
All you silent followers and favoriters still make my day, but reviews feed my muse. ;)  
As a warning, this chapter is fairly violent. Nothing too gory, though. Not yet, anyways. There might just might be another update today, let's see what I can get out for chapter five. :] The fluff I promised a reviewer in PM will have to wait until I find a jack hammer to bust the block.

Hope you enjoy this little snippet nonetheless!

* * *

_04: I Will Not Go Mad, Not Go Mad…_

Seras stared at her blood soaked hands, then at the pile of eviscerated and dismembered ghouls, and then to the bullet holes in her shirt. _Oh god… what have I done?_

Whimpering, the girl turns frantic blue eyes to her surroundings, searching for the familiar Hellsing uniform amongst the dead. _What happened? How did I get here? I… can't remember.  
_The yawning blackness in her mind threatened to swallow the fledgling whole. _What… did I do..?_

Clutching her head and smearing blood across her cheeks, the blonde crumpled to her knees with a wet squelch. Surrounded by death, a copper tang ripe on her tongue, Seras struggled to keep hold of her mind.

'_Master…'_

A shockwave of memories exploded from the shadow veiling her thoughts, punishingly bright and real and oh god the blood…

That's right, Sir Integra had sent them to a warehouse to deal with the growing ghoul population and missing persons reports. It seemed like they were running rogue, and the fledgling and her back up team began exterminating them swiftly. Her Master had been sent on a separate mission, and it wasn't all that common for them to go on ghoul hunts together anymore, anyways.

The last ghoul had been shot down when the floor caved in beneath them, sending Seras and three of her men into the pit the ghouls had dug as protection against the sunlight. Right into another swarm of them, and their vampire.

Seras had charged the FREAK with her handgun spraying blessed silver bullets, but she ducked behind her minions to shield herself. And then she sprang forward the instant Seras' clip ran dry, and the fledgling had no choice but to swing her harkonnen like a club.

Her men were filling the cavern with the echo of gunfire as their semi automatics sent waves of bullets into the crowd of ghouls, trying to keep them at bay. One of those bullets went wild and pierced her arm.

Seras howled and clutched her bicep, trembling and gasping at the pain. Fortunately it had passed cleanly through the other side of her arm, but the silver coating had rubbed off on impact and sent virulent poison through her bloodstream. Gritting her teeth, swaying, the girl's vision begins to blur red. No! No, she could handle this, damnit!

She shook off the beginnings of the blood rage, and straightened, only to be tackled by the FREAK and pinned to the rocky floor.

Self preservation kicked in and her blue eyes burned crimson as the mostly dormant vampire inside her took over. With a roar, the girl rolled onto her shoulders and slammed her legs up and back into the FREAK's spine, shattering it and sending her flying into her zombie thralls. Rolling with the momentum, the blonde lurched to her feet and snarled, fangs elongated and black claws bursting through the seams of her gloves, She leaped blindly after her prey, and into a pocket of open space, only to jerk and twitch in mid air as bullets impact her chest, the force of it sending her flying backwards into the ground.

Muffled voices echoed in her ears as her men screamed her name in concern, unable to halt their fire for fear of their lives against the almost endless swarm of undead. How the hell were there this many animated corpses?!

Laying there in a pool of her own blood, struggling for the breath her body no longer truly needed, her Master's last words to her as a human echoed through her mind. _"I had to shoot through you to pierce his heart. I'm sorry but you're dying and there's no time left. The choice is yours. What do you want to do?"_

_I… I… I want to live!_

Darkness roared and blood consumed her world, dying everything red and taking away the last shades of grey. The wounds in her chest began to heal sluggishly as the blood crawled back into her body and she rolled to her hands and knees, rising shakily, her teeth **aching** to taste blood.

"_Police Girl, tonight is truly a beautiful night."_

As if those words were a trigger, the half dead fledgling threw herself into the crowd of ghouls with a snarl. Fangs and claws knifed through rotted flesh, spraying cold, stale blood in waves. Despite the rank earthy tones, she swallowed it greedily to refill her reserves.

Rip. Tear. Gut. Bleed.

Blood, blood, blood, blood, blood…

Gallons of it seemed to pour into her being, filling the hungry black void with a sea of angry red.

Slice. Kick. Punch. Blled.

More, more, more, more, MORE!

The sweetly sulphuric blood of the fallen FREAK dragged her mind from the depths of the madness, but did not return control of her body to her awakening sense of self within the slaughter. Limbs driven by the blood drunk darkness gifted by her Sire's fangs, the girl could only sit and watch within her own mind as she turned upon the trio huddling against the wreckage of what used to be the floor above.

Their fear smelled intoxicating and she dropped the husk of dry meat and broken bones to approach the promise of sweet living blood, untainted by rot and the false pretense of immortality.

Her name spilled from their lips like a mantra to god, pleading for him to come down from on high and save them from the insane vampire. Hah! They would have better luck calling for her Master.

'_Master…'_

The thought was locked down viciously by the greedy thing inhabiting her soul. No, she would not be allowed to summon her creator until the blood sucker had its fill and bathed itself in blood with her own claws.

Hysteria bit at the edges of her self, clawing little pieces away like tissue paper. When the last of the bullets riddled her form heedlessly, she closed her eyes and blocked her ears, chanting to herself and rocking back and forth in the last little corner of innocence left to her mind.

_I will not go mad, not go mad, not go mad, not…_

And then it was over. And she was left there, alone in her own head, staring at her hands in horror. _Oh god… What have I done?_

"Master…" She whimpered, hands dropping to her lap as she fell back to stare up at the warehouse ceiling so far away.

"Seras." A voice answered. His voice.

Suddenly, he was there, and real, and she sobbed, throwing herself at the red clad man; her bloody fingers curling in a death grip on his coat.

'I'm sorry's and 'I didn't mean to's and other garbled apologies spilled from her mouth in a tangle of syllables and half choked wails.

Her Master sighed and one of his large hands rested itself on her head, gloved fingers running through her hair in a soothing motion. "Police Girl, you have nothing to apologize for. This is the cost we pay for our long lives; an eternity spent in the company of blood and death."

Burying her face into his chest, the girl's shoulders jerk as she forces back further tears.

His other arm drapes itself across her shoulders, holding her to him in one of his rare moments of comfort for his Childe. Gratefully, the girl sags, her arms drooping limply at her sides as she rests her entire weight upon her Sire.

"This changes nothing, Police Girl, except perhaps your appreciation for the blood bags Hellsing provides us with." Alucard's words sink into her mind, easing some of the worry about the future.

"Sir Integra will be angry." Seras mutters, dreading the meeting between herself and the Hellsing heir as she gives her report.

"Most likely." Alucard agrees, "but you are young yet, little fledgling, and accidents happen."

Peeking up at him, she notes his expression change as he takes in the gory scenery. A perverse pleasure lights his face, and his lips quirk as he turns his molten gaze upon her, taking note of the number of bullet holes in her tattered uniform. "Heh. It was glorious, wasn't it, Police Girl? The thrill of blood in your mouth and under your claws." His nostrils flared, and she shivered before looking away and biting her lip.

"…Yes, my Master."


	5. Bad Dreams

The Seldom Seen

**AN:** Lookie! Another chapter! This one's posted early thanks to Archer8's review.  
This is actually what was going to be the original chapter one. But I moved it down in line because the ending wasn't done. Until now. I looked it over, and it seems right to me, but I haven't gotten much sleep the past few days, so forgive me if the ending seems a bit off. :[  
I've got another story I might finish the first three chapters of to post as a stand-alone piece befre working on the sequel as my muse allows.  
Or I'll just write more scenelets for this. XD

Thanks for reading! And remember - reviews make my day. ;)

* * *

_05: Bad Dreams_

Seras jerks awake, head slamming into the lid of her coffin-bed painfully. Biting back the pained whimper, she shivers, her wide eyes flickering between blue and red in a tumult of chaos, even daring to glow purple for mere instances as she presses the button to raise the lid and slips free of the confinement the instant there is enough room. Hissing slightly at the feeling of the air still charged by sunlight even down in the depths of the earth, the girl wraps her arms around her waist in an attempt to stave off further shivering. Padding quickly down the barren hallway, she hesitates and stops at the door to her Master's chambers. She couldn't remember the number of times she'd spent sleeping at his door, too frightened of displeasing him by intruding into his rooms unwanted; but needing the strangely comforting terror of his presence, even through solid wood and stone.

Dancing from foot to foot anxiously, the blonde ducks her head and shivers harder, pale body wracked by tremors as dainty fangs dig into her lower lip – careful not to puncture flesh – thinking that, perhaps, maybe, this one time he wouldn't mind. Being at his door wasn't enough to banish the darkness from her mind this pre-night.

Flicking her gaze from side to side nervously, Seras Victoria debates what to do; creep in unannounced, and possibly unwanted, like a mouse… or knock and hope he answers. Deciding not to test her luck with the former, her trembling hand reaches up and out to tap so quietly upon the door that any creature other than her Master would have missed it.

The lock clicked and the door swung outward silently, only just enough to permit her entrance if she slid her back along the doorjamb and tucked her arms at her sides instead of wrapped around her torso. Inching her way through the gap cautiously, the solid wood nudges her gently inside as it closes softly, but firmly, behind her. Feeling especially skittish, she jumps and jerks her head up to stare with wide, haunted eyes into the dark and empty hall; focusing instantly on the red blur in the distance.

"What is it, Police Girl? It's still early." Alucard's deep baritone rumbles in reprimand, startling and soothing at the same time as making the girl cringe back against the barrier preventing her escape.

"I… I… Did I wake you, Master?" She stammers, whispering fearfully and clutching herself tighter to steel her nerves. Oh, if she woke him… if she made him mad… She hated to displease him.

Ignoring her question, Alucard taps his fingers on his upraised knee, "What do you want, Police Girl? It's not often you enter my quarters." There was a hint of something in his voice, a note of mockery, that told her he knew of her countless sojourns to his door that ended there, never daring to knock until now.

Hanging her head to stare at her bare toes, Seras chokes back a whimper. He was mad at her, wasn't he? "I… I… I…" swallowing thickly, bracing herself for his scorn and dismissal, "I wanted to see you, Master." Flicking her gaze up hopefully, she withers under his unblinking stare. Half heard whispers berated her harshly, phantom images playing across her minds eye of him sneering in disgust at her weakness and banishing her for coming to see him to ward off the shadows that unrestful dreams cast over her fragile form.

Saying nothing, Alucard silently patted his knee once with the gloved hand resting upon it. Seras' eyes widened before she practically bolted across the enormous room to reach the comfort of her Sire's close proximity. Stopping just within arms reach, she glances at him in trepidation before slipping to her knees and shuffling forward to curl herself around the leg resting on the floor, wrapping an arm around the back of his calf, her shivering finally calms as she rests her cheek against the rough material of his pants over his knee. Scooting closer, practically conjoining herself with his limb, she closes her eyes and allows herself to relax fully since waking alone in her coffin-bed. Without a word, the comforting weight of his gloved hand settles across the top of her head, fingers idly playing with strands of sun bright hair as a _clink_ sounds from the ancient vampire setting his wine glass down on the end table on his right. Time passes unnoticed by the fledgling as she drifts into a half sleep, lulled by the silence that fills her mind in her Master's presence.

* * *

Alucard exhaled a silent sigh as he gazed down at the resting form of his only surviving Childe. It was times like this, her most vulnerable and needy moments, when he felt himself willing to be patient with her. She was still a child in every sense of the word, no matter how developed her body may seem to the admiring eye.

And what does a child do when it has bad dreams? It crawls into bed with its parents to pretend everything was fine and that there were no monsters under the bed. Like Seras, he had lost track of the number of times he had opened his door after she had fallen asleep on the floor outside of it to carry her back to her coffin and pet the hair away from her face before leaving.

While he could be unbelievably cruel, heartless, murderous and full on insane at the drop of a hat in his lust for blood, and battle, and the glory of death; even monsters treated their kin different from their prey. Not that any of the mortal elements of Hellsing need be privy to this information. No, this indulgence was for his occasionally fragile childe and her alone.

Tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear, he hums quietly to himself in thought. Oh, he knew what she dreamed, what she feared above all else; how could he not when her mind was an open book for his perusal? He was hard on her in the public eye, berating her for not drinking the blood, for making beginner's mistakes, and she took it to heart. Her greatest fear that sent her running to his door in the late hours of the afternoon in a cold sweat was that he would grow tired of her disappointing him and he would abandon her. He, the last family she had, would leave her alone again, just like the mortals she used to be one of. Not that his little Police Girl showed this vulnerable side to just anyone, no, she was brave in her own way and followed him into the darkness despite her fear.

Perhaps he would allow her to stay when she awoke, to cling to him so until she felt assured he wouldn't rid himself of her needlessly.

With a flick of his wrist, a favorite book of his floated from the hidden shelves and landed in his open palm, pages turning slowly by themselves as he finished their contests; free hand never leaving the gentle warmth of his childe's scalp.

The immortal truly had no need to consciously keep track of the flow of time, as the Hellsings had long ago set a routine for him to follow like an obedient dog. Walter arrived at his chamber door promptly at eight-on-the-dot with a bottle of blood wine nestled firmly in a bucket of ice. Giving a cursory knock as a sham of pleasantry, the butler enters and gives a half bow as he approaches the No-Life King on his throne. Setting the chilled bucket on the lower shelf of the end table, he straightens and adjusts his monocle with a gleam in the eerie blue light flickering in the sconces on the walls – lit only upon his presence at the door – and opens his mouth to report the evenings' plans when he does a double take – blinks twice – and cants his head slightly to one side as he takes note of the slumbering blonde curled up at her master's feet. A faint smile curls his lips as he retrieves a blood pack from an inner pocket of his vest and rests it calmly upon Alucard's ice bucket, turning to leave without a word.

Walter C. Dolneaz knew when to keep a secret, after all.

* * *

Seras drifted slowly back to consciousness as the warm sweet smell of blood filled her senses with a tingling need. Mumbling half words under her breath, the fledgling curls her body closer around her pillow, nuzzling her cheek deeper into the strangely rough texture.

'_That's odd…'_

Banishing the thought with a muffled grunt, her arms tighten around the pillow as her blood-scent drunk mind cajoles her into nuzzling the rough cloth more, it felt good.

A rumbling chuckle filled her ears pleasantly as something warm and smooth was pressed to her lips. Biting instinctively, she jerks slightly at the filmy tang of plastic upon her tongue, before whimpering as the copper thrill of blood explodes deliciously – albeit a bit stale – across her pallet. Suckling greedily, she gives a faint cry of dismay when the bag is emptied.

"Poor little Police Girl," the voice crooned, a warm hand settling atop her head and ruffling her hair, "did you want more?"

There was something sinful in that voice, darkly seductive that pulled at her glazed mind. Ignoring the tugs of consciousness, happy in her little pocket of half awareness, she mewls and arches into the hand in agreement.

The hand retreats for a moment and reappears around her waist to tug her up from the floor and curl her pliant form across what felt like a rather stiff chair. Wriggling to get comfortable, she stills quiescently at the warning vibration of a soft growl. A chuckle followed suit and something cold and round pressed into her bottom lip. Cracking her left eye partially open, she stares at the half full wineglass and the white gloved hand supporting it. _'Master…'_

Allowing her eyelid to drift back down, cocooning herself in the blessedly blank world of darkness, her lips part obediently and she shivers as chilled blood crawls down her throat in a syrupy trail.

A warm hand patted her head approvingly and she purred, leaning into the touch once the glass was emptied.

"As amusing as this is, Police Girl, too much of a good thing gets boring." She could practically _hear_ the smirk in his voice, "so why don't you crawl out of that little mental closet and come play with the big kids, hm?"

A strange echo twisted and curled inside her head, seeking out that hidden door where the real Seras Victoria lay sleeping. One... Two... Three... A sharp note of command throbbed in her skull and she flinched, lids flying open as she was yanked into awareness by the will of her Master.

Reigning in her urge to scream out of deference to his sensitive hearing – and he'd more than likely dump her from his lap in retaliation – she stares wide eyed at her Sire in mute disbelief.

How did she..?

Flicking her gaze from side to side nervously, snippets of memory float to the forefront of her minds eye, revealing her pitiful state after one of her … dreams.

"Master." Sera mumbled, turning her blue eyes down to her hands in her lap, and taking note of her position on his.

"Seras," Alucard answered back, watching her intently.

"I… had a bad dream." She confessed as an explanation for her behavior earlier.

"I'm aware."

Shocked, her gaze flies up to meet his; taking in the mixture of patience, amusement, and affection in his crimson depths.

"…Oh."

Slumping forward to hide her face against his chest, the fledgling discreetly takes a deep breath of his scent. Blood, earth, pine, and a lingering wisp of gunpowder.

The hand returns to her hair, petting idly as the girl relaxes.

"Master? You won't leave me, will you?" She whispers, refusing to look at her Sire.

He paused in his petting, and she tensed, before he chuckled quietly, "No, fledgling. Though the day will come when **you** leave **me**. I am bound to this bloodline and this land, now, and far too powerful to fade and die. I will be your only constant in this world, Seras."

Soothed beyond measure by his words, Seras drapes herself more comfortably against her progenitor; unwilling to leave his presence just yet.

"I'm glad."


	6. Down Time

The Seldom Seen

**AN:** I freely admit this isn't my best, but I wanted to post this before bed. This is an attempted "group shot" sorta deal. I can't do Pip's accent, so he gets none.  
Despite it being the day after, I still got three updates within one day of being awake still. XD

_I'm better at violence._

_06: Cool Down Time_

Seras flopped down on the long couch in the main drawing room of the Hellsing Estate, a large opaque cup with a curly straw held in one hand, the other reaching for the remote to the flat screen tv taking up the wall. "At least there's **some** normal things to do in this place!" The girl exclaimed with relief as she turned the telly on to mindlessly channel surf.

The past week alone had been rather rough, what with her own 'growing pains' and rather embarrassing encounters with the Geese. Lordy! The young fledgling was extremely grateful that her negligent feeding habits impaired her ability to blush.

Glancing down at her cup with a rather queasy expression at the thought of feeding, the blonde turned her gaze intently back to the 'boob tube' as one of the orphanage workers called it.

A body dropped down beside her, and a familiar voice spoke casually, "So, what are we watching?" Pip asked, an open bag of crisps in his hands.

_Guess that's what I get for taking over the big screen._ Seras thought grumpily.

"Dunno yet." She answered with forced nonchalance.

The redhead made a grab for the remote and she jerked it away instinctively, covering the reflexive move by sticking her tongue out childishly, "Nu-uh, I got here first."

The Frenchman put on his most charming smile as he laughed good naturedly. "Alright, alright, I can take a hint."

The next channel proved to be some sort of horror movie, as the first sound they heard was a blood curdling scream. Ouch, that was loud!

Another body appeared to her right and her Master's voice crooned in her ear, "So, what are we watching, Police Girl?"

Resisting the urge to shriek, Seras flinched a little and turned to face Alucard with a raised brow, "A horror movie I guess." After a pause she grinned cheekily, "Sir."

"Mmm." Alucard hummed in agreement, making a great show of getting comfortable and throwing a look at Pip as the human opened his mouth to say something. The mercenary wisely rethought his words and turned to Seras, "I thoguth the point was to take a break from blood and screaming, Mignonette. Shall we watch something else?" He wheedled, green eye gleaming.

"Oh, but I quite like this movie." Alucard interrupted, fangs bared and free hand settling warningly across the back of his Childe's neck. "If you find it unsatisfactory, human, perhaps you should find your entertainment elsewhere?" He phrased it in so polite, and off hand a manner, that Pip would appear churlish to continue his manipulation attempts on the girl.

Seras shivered and leaned forward in an attempt to escape her Master's touch without drawing undue attention. "You know what I miss?" The girl asked suddenly, in an attempt to ease the growing tension in what was supposed to be her down time, "Popcorn."

Alucard chuckled and yanked the Police Girl back into the cushions of the soda, keeping the girl uncomfortably close and away from the Frenchman. "Such childish desires." He mocked, settling back comfortably to watch the girl begin hacking at her own arm to escape the trap, and laughed.

"What is that god awful noi-…Oh." Integra demanded as she entered the room, only to break off mid accusation upon seeing Alucard and the gory movie on screen, "It would figure you were the cause of this, Alucard." With a sigh, the Hellsing heir strode over to the couch and leaned upon the back with an odd look on her face, "Can a normal human actually chop through their arm like that without a bone saw?" She asked curiously.

"Oh, you'd be surprised what a fear of death can motivate you towards, my Master." Alucard purred, still holding Seras to his side with a sickeningly gleeful expression on his handsome face.

"Quite… Regardless it is too loud. Half the house can hear the sound track to this movie." Integra deadpanned, her words prompting Seras to turn the volume down. How had she not noticed how loud it was?

Walter entered shortly after with an unopened letter on a tray, and stopped, staring at the gory scene with an arched brow. "I knew he'd discover these movies eventually…" The man muttered to himself, thankful that Alucard's chambers were sound proofed against the inevitable onslaught of him wanting the others and the ensuing laughter at the rather ridiculous methods of death.

Seras attempted to pull away once more, and winced as his fingers dug deeply into her shoulder, "Master…"

He ignored her and even had the gall to take her cup and drink from her straw with a wicked mocking look in his eyes. Damnit.

Forcing herself to ignore her surroundings and focus solely on the massive flat screen, Seras very very very slowly relaxed.

This wasn't so bad.

Just another atypical day in Hellsing for the fledgling and her mercurial master.

Yanking her cup back from her Master, she wipes the end of the straw off and slurps her blood up through the many twists and turns while watching the movie with him, and Pip, and the lingering presences of Sir Integra and Walter.


	7. Bad Girl

The Seldom Seen

**AN:** You are hereby **warned** that this chapter is rather dark. Because I like stuff like that. My brain got stuck on the longer, comparitively ncer chapter up next. But now that I have this out of my sysytem I should be able to get chapter eight done.  
So if you don't like Alucard treating Seras like a punching bag, skip this chapter and wait for the next one that will hopefully be out later today.

Oh and before I forget... **I LOVE ALL MY REVIEWERS, AND FOLLOWERS, AND**** FAVORITERS!** Each time I look and see how many of each I have, it makes me all happy and warm and tingly and want to write more. :]

* * *

_07: Bad Girl _

"Uh oh…" Cringing, shrinking in on herself, Seras stares pleadingly up at the looming figure of her Master. "It was an accident?"

His hand shot out quick as a flash, backhanding her into the wall. Gasping in pain, vision going white for a moment, Seras slides down to the floor, limp as a rag doll.

"Get up." The male spat in disgust, foot tapping and giving her fair warning. Only her legs collapsed out from under her when she tried, and said boot found its way to her ribs. _Crack!_

Rolling in agony and coughing up blood, Seras shivers violently and claws at the floor to get away from the menacing figure at her back. "Please, I'm sorry!"

"Weakling." His heel came down on her right hand and crushed it mercilessly, bones snapping wetly and skin tearing to leave a growing pool of blood. Seras screamed and yanked furiously at her hand to get free. "Master!"

"I can taste your pain, Police Girl." Her Master crooned, bending at the waist to stare at her with those glowing hellfire eyes.

Feeling desperate, she swung her other hand at his face with black claws protruding from the split fingers of her glove. She missed and his heel ground down harder in reprimand. "Now now, Police Girl, that wasn't nice."

Whimpering, blood trickling down her chin, Seras tugs at her trapped hand experimentally. He didn't budge. Biting her lip, and tasting yet more of her own blood on her tongue, she swings her free hand out at his ankle to try and force him off that way. It worked,.. except that he kicked her in the chin instead – nearly shattering her jaw and damn near close to snapping her neck. The force sent her flying – what a surprise – into yet another wall. Curling into a pitiful ball, and crying out as her broken ribs grate against her lungs, she hacks up more blood as it fills her airway. "M-Master…" She wheezes, blood tears rimming her eyes but not yet trickling down her cheeks.

"Fledgling." He answered, gloved hand fisting cruelly in her hair and dragging her across the floor towards his throne like chair. The male sat and dropped her at his feet. Moments later a blood bag plopped down in front of her nose. Seras quivered, eyes darkening until they glistened cherry red need… Reaching her undamaged hand out, she yanked it closer and bit into it desperately, cringing at the filmy taste of the plastic on her tongue. But the luke warm crimson liquid eased the pain of her broken bones within seconds, and she felt them resettling and regenerating shattered pieces. _Ow._

When the blood pack ran dry, she dropped it. Shivering as though taken by a sudden chill, the small girl glances up warily at the looming figure of her Master.

He was smiling. _Oh god…_ "Master?" It took every bit of will power she had not to let her voice tremble.

He reached down, and she cringed, but he simply patted her head like an owner would a dog. She couldn't help but lean into the softer touch with a faint purr like sound in her throat. Yes, she liked this much better, though she thought rather longingly of the days when her Master ignored her… But if he was petting her, then it meant he wasn't angry anymore. _Lord but his moods changed like quicksilver!_

Exhausted by the roller coaster ride of her Master's mood swings, and lulled by the petting, Seras' lids drifted closed and her cheek slowly lowered until her head was resting on his foot; the rest of her sprawled out in a boneless heap. At least it wasn't **all** blood and pain and fear with him. She ached to change their relationship; either back to what it was, or at least something less physical. But her Master decided that, not her, apparently.

Blackness engulfed her in a soothing promise of numbness, and she lost consciousness, body going still without her mind's habit of breathing.

Alucard chuckled darkly and scooped her limp form up into his lap to continue petting her blonde locks indulgently. "Good girl."


	8. This Used To Be A Fun House

The Seldom Seen

**AN:** Hallo! Lookit this, I updated again. And with a very long chapter. :D  
Getting this out a bit earlier than I thought is dedicated to Kara Ashford. I hope this helps your day get better. :]

Let's see... warnings... uh. My attempt at adding a hint of sexual tension, combined with bits and pieces of a dream I had once. This chapter didn't quite go the way I'd originally planned, so I hope it doesn't feel too choppy of a read, Love to all my readers! Might be able to crank out some extra chapters today while I'm still on a roll.

* * *

_08: This Used To Be A Fun House… _

Seras woke with a gasp, eyes wide, pupils dialated, and covered in a layer of sweat. "Dear lord!" Fanning her flushed cheeks with her hand, the fledgling shivered and squirmed. "Ew… I'm all sweaty. I thought being dead meant I didn't have to deal with this kind of stuff…"

Grumbling irritably, and flinching slightly as her thighs brushed, the faint friction sending chills down her spine, the girl fumbled for her remote to raise the lid of her coffin-bed so she could escape into the shower.

"A cold shower."

Minutes later, Seras emerged from a cloud of steam – she had turned the hot water on about halfway through – wearing a fluffy bath robe and toweling her hair into messy spikes.

'_**Police Girl.'**_ Her Master's voice echoed in her head, making the girl shriek and jump about a foot into the air. His mocking laughter reverberated almost painfully in her thoughts, '_**Sir Integra has a mission for us. Report to her office immediately.'**_

Great… _**'Yes, Master.'**_ The girl thought in reply, hurrying to her closet to retrieve her uniform.

Dropping the robe carelessly to the floor, the blonde shivered as flashes of her dream trickle to her minds eye. _Master's hair all long and silky… Black claws tearing her shirt… The sweet sweet smell of blood in the air…_

God! What was **wrong** with her?! Shaking her head vigorously to banish the naughty thoughts, Seras Victoria finished getting dressed for her mission and hot footed it out of her room to not keep Sir Integra waiting.

…Only to ram face first into Alucard's chest as he appeared out of nowhere just feet from Integra's study. "Oof!"

Falling backwards gracelessly, Seras' eyes went wide as saucers as Alucard reined her in to his chest with a 'tsk'. "Clumsy Childe." He mocked, staring with glee at her tomato red face.

"M-Master…" Seras muttered, pushing feebly at his chest to get some distance between herself and her blood Sire. God… Did he always smell this good?

Her cheeks flamed brighter still as she thought that, and an even worse thought made her blood turn to ice. Was he listening in on her mind again?! Jerking her head up to stare at hin in pure panic, the sight of his twisted smirk made her wilt. Oh dear…

"Watch where you're going, Police Girl." Alucard continued, an unholy light in his ginger gaze as he turned the both of them to the double doors to Sir Integra's study and walked her to it.

A little confused at his lack of mention of her wandering mind, and apprehensive at the continued close contact, she tugged at the arm around her waist more insistently. Master was acting weird, damnit!

"Ah, Seras, Alucard... you're late." Integra purred their names threateningly, standing stiffly behind her desk.

"Apologies, my Master, we were delayed." Alucard crooned oh so sweetly as he bowed, taking Seras with him in the gesture of deference. His fledgling squeaked and her face flushed even brighter red.

Sir Integra stared at the pair with an unreadable expression on her aristocratic features. Then her eyes narrowed behind her glasses and her lips tightened, "You have a mission at a carnival." She sounded rather aggravated, "One of their attractions, a supposedly haunted maze, has been reporting patrons going missing, screaming, blood, and various other maladies not part of the act."

Alucard chuckled. "A fun house. How amusing."

"Your mission is simple; search and destroy. Now go." Sir Hellsing turned her back on the undead duo, puffing furiously on her cigar. Clearly she was displeased with this ridiculous mission, but it had to be done.

"As you wish, my Master."

* * *

"Oh wow, Master, look at all the rides!" Seras gasped as they stepped out of one of Alucard's shadow portals into a dimly lit section between two booths. "I've never been to a carnival before… could we maybe do one or two things before the fun house?" Seras asked pleadingly, blue eyes wide and hopeful.

Alucard gave her a flat look and she frowned, "Just the rollercoaster?" She tried, pointing to the thrill ride where the loudest screams emanated.

"If it will stop your pitiful begging, Police Girl, fine."

"Yes!" Hopping in place like an eager child, Seras grabbed her Master's hand and tugged him along towards the somewhat rickety looking ride. She could practically _feel_ his bemused smirk as they approached. Fortunately there was no line, so they only had to wait for the next car to arrive.

The ride worker blathered on his nonsense about 'keep your arms inside at all times' and other useless info, and Seras was secretly amused at how skittish he was when It came time to lock their lap bar into place because of the look her Master gave him. Smothering her grin, the Police Girl looked straight ahead at the slope they'd be climbing any second now.

"You know what would make this ride really fun?" Alucard hummed conversationally, the tone sending chills down Seras' spine. "Master…" Gripping the handrail anxiously - and denting it into the shape of her fingers without noticing - Seras stared at the man beside her with a slight frown tugging her pretty lips.

"Don't you want me to have fun, too, Police Girl?" Her Master mocked, fangs glinting in the carnival lights as their car starts up the hill with a clanking sound of working gears. Fidgeting in her seat, wondering what inspired her to ask her Master for this in the first place, Seras' frown deepened before she sighed. "No bloodshed?" She'd play his game – ha! Like she had any choice… - but she really wanted to enjoy the ride without being questioned by the police for being the only other survivor in some horrific accident on the coaster.

"Pffeh… Sir Integra would be _displeased_ with me, though it would be glorious. No, Police Girl, no bloodshed." She could practically taste the 'yet' lingering around him menacingly. "Fine, Master." She answered a bit grumpily, much to his amusement.

Darkness swelled around the pair, fortunately they were in the back so none of the other passengers could see them, and centipedes began crawling up the sides of the connected cars as bats swirled in choking clouds around the structure. Master's laughter echoed louder even than the screams. Just as they crested the hill, a hell hound appeared with its slavering mouth gaping wide. Seras shrieked herself in reflex as she stared into the darkness about to swallow them whole. Cringing against her Master's side instinctively, he just continued to laugh as they passed through the illusion. "I don't think I like this ride anymore…" The Police Girl muttered, nearly deafened by the cacophony of females and males alike screaming in mortal terror of her Master's sense of humor.

"Tsk, tsk, Police Girl, don't be that way." Alucard crooned, snaking an arm around her waist and tilting her head up with the other, "Open your eyes and enjoy it with me." He continued, voice cajoling, though she knew it was a command. His hand on her side moved, and she felt a flush rise to her cheeks. _Damnit._ Cracking open her lids partway in a bid to distract herself from his newfound fascination with touching her, his fledgling almost shrieked again at the sight of the scythe aimed at her throat. It passed through harmlessly, but she still half expected to find herself dead. "Not funny, Master!"

He just laughed.

When the ride finally stopped there were more than a few sobbing people, and Seras' legs felt a bit shaky as she stumbled out of the car. Her Master scoffed, a sinister toothy grin on his face, and grasped her by the elbow to lead her away from the hysterical crowd and towards their objective. "Come along, Seras, no time to be a coward."

"R-right…Sorry, Sir."

The fun house attendant seemed nervous as he let them in, and Seras caught him whispering 'please not again' under his breath as they entered the beginnings of the mirror maze. She'd looked at the posters lining the queue, and they'd informed that this fun house had multiple parts – first came the mirror maze, then a spinning room, followed by what sounded like a child's jungle gym enlarged for adults as well, with the ending of a choice of slides. The building was a few stories tall, and she caught a glimpse of a circular opening in the wall to the left of the entry, and she could swear she caught a whiff of old blood. There was also some nonsense about a ghost clown – probably a projection – that they had to beat to the exit to win a prize… Something like that.

"Well this'll be interesting…" Seras muttered as they passed the threshold, swallowed by darkness. A light shined at the end of the tunnel, a dense fog hugging the floor and a strange smell in the air. Seras' nose wrinkled and her hand twitched, itching to grab hold of her Master's sleeve.

The first sight that greeted them was a hall of mirrors. Expected, given the info outside. But what drew Seras' attention was the mirror directly to her right that reflected her covered in blood. Eyes widening, she jerks away, and another mirror shows her as a little girl with a great slavering black dog at her side. "What…" A slight tremble appeared in her hands as she took a deep breath… and coughed, that strange smell choking. Her hapless gaze traveled to a third mirror and a disturbing sight met her sapphire eyes; it was her, in her Hellsing uniform, only it was blood red and her left arm was missing, replaced by a swirling mass of bloody shadows.

"Stop breathing." Master ordered, a warm gloved hand settling across her face to cover her eyes, "There's a drug in the fog that plays with your mind." He continued, lecturing and explaining all in one go as he tugged her blindly along.

Seras obeyed, remembering sheepishly that she really didn't need to breathe, it was just habit. They continued like this for a few feet until she stumbled over something on the floor, and Alucard's hand slipped free of her face. It took all of her will power not to scream at the sight of her as a little girl inside a closet, a massive bullet hole through her face. _It didn't happen like that! It didn't…_

Shaking, the Police Girl turned to her Sire and swallowed – he was covered in those crawling blood shadows like her earlier reflection. But this didn't scare her as much as the gory images in the glass, this was familiar to her. Closing her eyes to block it out, she reached for her Master blindly, trusting him to guide her through the maze until the effects of the drug she'd already inhaled faded.

'_**I'm starting to hate carnivals.'**_ She muttered into their mental link. _**'Who drugs a mirror maze like that? This isn't some cartoon where the villain laughs behind a pane of one way glass.'**_

Her Master's chuckle sent shivers racing down her spine and she clung tighter to his arm. _**'Indeed. I believe the FREAKS, if they are here, added that particular surprise. Fear makes the blood taste especially sweet.'**_

Seras could easily envision his expression of dark hunger as he licked his lips. God, her Master was so bloodthirsty. _He's not human… but then, neither am I anymore._

"Open your eyes, Seras, we're passed the maze." Alucard's words yanked her from her darkened state of half awareness, and her lids fluttered open obediently. Her head canted to the right quizzically as she stared at the rotating tunnel. It wasn't moving that fast, but it was clearly spinning, and in a full circle, too. When she looked closer, she frowned – there were dark spots that could easily be holes, and judging by them, the tunnel was in a few different parts that moved in opposite directions.

Alucard went first, and Seras nearly boggled as she saw him walk calmly - diagonally, horizontally, upside down… - along with the flow of the tunnel's moving parts until he reached the end and turned back to look at her with such a smug expression on his face she wanted to throw something at him. "That's cheating, Master!"

He said nothing, merely crooking his finger in a come hither gesture. She growled and stared at the rotating surface appraisingly. Maybe… if she…

Deciding that two could play at that game, Seras hopped through the vortex, never landing in one spot long enough to be pulled with the cylindrical floor, Landing next to her Master with her own smug look, she stared up at him challengingly. He laughed. "Nice work, Police Girl."

The pair walked another few feet before encountering an oddly shaped exit – it looked like an obese crescent moon turned on its side – and a set of rather squishy stairs leading down into the main attraction. Glancing back curiously, Seras shuddered. The entrance into the jungle gym was a giant clown face, and they had walked out of it's mouth and down the tongue. She hated clowns.

"The FREAKS will be here, if anywhere." The instant they stepped off the 'tongue' a rather disturbing laugh echoed from the grinning clown's mouth, and a projection appeared behind them of a semi-transparent ghost. Ugh! "Well that's one way to announce we're here…" Grumbling, because she really **really** hated clowns, Seras tried her best to ignore the laugh track and the floating clown approaching their position so slowly it felt like a horror movie.

Her Master grinned knowingly at her and made a hand motion to send her on ahead. Sighing, she obeyed and trotted towards the first obstacle – a net ladder – she can't help but grin a little as fonder child hood memories remind her of how she dominated these play structures as a kid. Curling her fingers into the ropes, the skirt wearing blonde began to scramble nimbly up towards the top when she heard a faint whistle and she froze in mortification. Oh good lord… was… was her Master looking up her skirt?! Tensing, she threw a look over her shoulder at the grinning red clad man standing below her. Ugh!

Growling obscenities under her breath, the fledgling twists her fingers tighter in the ropes and kicks off her unstable footing to roll forward and push herself up the rest of the slope without giving the Peeping Tom another glimpse of her white panties, damnit.

He chuckled as she collided with his legs, having appeared on the landing with the use of his powers, cheating, **again**.

The stupid clown hologram began to float up the net ladder, too. Rolling to the side to sit on her knees, Seras glanced between the two different paths possible, "Now what, Master?"

Alucard hummed and sniffed the air, "We split up, Police Girl." Reaching down, he hauled her up to her feet with an arm on her waist … while his hand moved rather close to her backside. Flushing bright red, she slapped the hand away, and was jerked roughly to his chest in retaliation, a growl rumbling between them. His hand returned and moved deliberately along her hip, the other arm settling just under her rather generous bust. "Master!" She protested, squirming.

"Mm, please do continue struggling, it's not unpleasant." He leered, breath hot on the back of her ear as he bent to rest his cheek against hers. She froze and he chuckled.

She was starting to really hate his laughter.

With a squeeze to her rear, the male dissolved into a shadow and slithered along the right path of the play maze. With a grimace, the former police officer darted off to the left.

_At least Master can't look up my skirt if he's going the other way…_

After a moment, she grinned outright as she swung from the monkey bars over the ball pit, took the monorail glider across the rolling pins, and generally had quite a blast while looking for signs of FREAK infestation. Finally, halfway down a slide, the smell of blood reached her nose. Slamming her hands and feet out to halt her downward progress, she frowned and inched her way cautiously down the slippery plastic. There, at the bottom, was another ball pit. But it **reeked** of blood. _**'Master, I think I found them.'**_She sent as she reached into her boot for the blessed silver knife she kept for close combat emergencies. No immediate response came. She slid down to the end of the slide, and stood on the extended lip that would have sent her flying into the pile of colorful balls, blue eyes narrowed and darkening to a rich crimson. Glancing up, she quirked an eyebrow at the sight of swinging padded pillars, and evidence of the former floor above being removed by force. A fall from that high would probably hurt a child. _Disable the prey._ She thought grimly and scanned the sea of hollow balls for any sign of movement.

Nothing. Yet.

Spying a ball wedged into the netting around the pit, she reached out, took it, and hurled it as hard as she could into the approximate space she would have landed. With the aid of her vampiric strength, the yellow sphere made quite the explosion of disrupted balls. Movement under the balls started like a shark fin breaking through the water's surface. Three of them. _Shit._

'_**Master!'**_

Baring her teeth nervously and bracing herself against the opening of the slide, the blonde dearly wished she had a more portable gun. When the trails met there was a quick tussle before a gaunt looking, greasy haired and sallow skinned male burst out of the sea of color, headed right for her with black claws extended and mouth opened inhumanly wide to show off predatory teeth. Seras shoved the blade into his forehead with a sickening _squelch_, and hurriedly kicked the disintegrating body off her knife to free her weapon for the other attacks.

They never came.

Damnit, her prey had fled in the face of a stronger vampire.

Alucard's laughter seeped into her head, and she shuddered. _**'Nice work, Police Girl. Now go fetch.'**_

Not liking the idea of jumping into that pit of blood and lord knows what else, she tilted her head back and sniffed experimentally. The ripe stench of fear emanated from further in the structure. Further in and further up.

'_**Yes Sir.'**_

She leaped across the distance easily to land on the other side, thankful for the platform's existence.

It didn't take her long to track the FREAKS down to another ball pit and she glared. "Again? Seriously? I'm **not** bloody jumping in there, damnit."

The imposter undead leaped at her simultaneously, one for her legs, the other for her head. Shit. Throwing her knife at the second one's skull, she kicked at the female trying to hobble her. She missed and the bitch sunk her teeth into Seras' calf. Screaming, the fledgling fell off balance – thankfully away from the balls – and regretted the rashness of tossing her blade, even if it **did** kill the other one.

An ominous presence oozed into the chamber, and she spied the oily shadow mass congealing on the ceiling… and staying there. Her Master apparently wanted to see if she could deal with the situation herself.

Gnashing her teeth in frustration and pain, Seras swung her other leg out in a vicious kick at the leech's ribs, dislodging her in a spray of blood. "That hurt, you bitch." Seras snarled, her own claws extending and ripping through the fingers of her gloves. Forcing herself to her feet, despite the rather obscenely large bite mark torn out of her leg, Seras waited – and wobbled – for the thing to come at her again. It did.

_These things are about as intelligent as ghouls._ Seras thought disdainfully, ducking to the right and raking her claws along the feral female's back. The FREAK howled and crashed into the netted wall, tangling herself as her claws severed strands of the reinforced wire.

Seras shuddered, glancing up at the shadow mass, it didn't move. Pursing her lips, the fledgling hopped gracelessly over to the writhing mass of manufactured vampire flesh, and reached out quick as a flash to fist the grimy locks, jerk the thing's head back, and slice through her throat with one rake of her claws. Ugh, their blood smelled like moldering dirt.

The thing went limp, gurgling a few times before slowly disintegrating.

Seras' leg throbbed, "Ow."

Alucard appeared in his human guise behind her, a sick grin twisting his lips, "I searched the rest of the maze while you were playing, Police Girl. All targets have been silenced. We're going back to Hellsing." His arms slid around her waist and she tensed a bit, flushing. He chuckled and they disappeared from the 'haunted' house as though they were ghosts themselves.

Seras' last thought was a grumble, agitated and somewhat bitter; _I hate fun houses._


	9. The Magic of Disney

The Seldom Seen

**AN:** This one was the "original chapter four". XD  
It took me a while... a rather long while, really, and after a few rewrites I settled on this instead. Fluff galore!

A cookie to anyone who can guess what Seras was about to say.

**I almost forgot!** I make no claims on the Disney movie The AristoCats. Or Hellsing, but y'all knew that already.

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_09: The Magic of Disney _

Alucard put the book down on his end table, a slight frown on his face. He had read these books so many times, memorized them, even. It was time to seek other amusement during the long hours of idle waiting for new missions.

Standing, he makes his way to his chamber doors and prowls down the silent halls of the basement levels. The ancient male had a rather specific destination in mind. A few twists and turns later combined with a short stair climb to one of the upper lower levels, led Alucard to the underground rec room Integra had installed for him when she was still just a child. Only to find muffled sound and light trickling past the closed door.

Growling at the intrusion into his entertainment, he flings the door open with a bang, "Police Girl, what did I tell you about hogging the tv?"

Seras jumped guiltily and stared at her Sire with wide eyes, "M-Master. Shouldn't you be asleep?" She blurted, an embarrassed flush coming to her cheeks at being caught watching one of her movies – especially considering the sun had been up for hours now.

"No." Alucard deadpanned, face blank. "What in the world are you watching, Police Girl?" Her Sire demanded as he caught sight of the characters on screen.

Seras fidgeted and turned her head away, mumbling under her breath, "It was my favorite movie as a kid… I watched it all the time with my parents." Sucking in her breath harshly and biting her lip to force back the painful memories, she squares her shoulders and lifts her gaze back to the three kittens.

"Might I remind you that this is _my_ tv and past _your_ bedtime?" Alucard growled, "All good little fledglings should be _asleep_ when the sun is up, not watching childrens' movies."

"Oh come _on_, Master! I caught you watching Te-…erk!" Seras broke off mid accusation as a hand clamped threateningly around her neck, "Not another word. I told you I was channel surfing." Sharp teeth snapped warningly in front of her nose and Seras gulped before nodding obediently, "Y-yes Master."

Curling his lip in a sneer, he drops his insolent Childe and settles himself on the couch to stare at the screen with a bored expression.

Seras flicks her sky blue gaze over to him, opens her mouth… then shuts it and simply resumes watching her movie.

A smile works its way to her lips and she hums cheerfully along with the silly song as the black kitten begins playing the piano. Alucard snorts, but she does her best to ignore him. She giggles as the orange kitten jumps up and gets paint on the keys.

Seras' lids flutter for a moment as she tries her best to smother a yawn, leaning back further into the cushions and discreetly scooting closer to the subtle warmth of her Master. Humans might not notice it, running at a higher temperature, but other vampires could feel warmth from close contact.

Her eyelids flutter again and she swears she'd only closed them for a second when the scene changes abruptly to when the butler is abandoning the basket of cats out in the rain. Her Master remains suspiciously silent about her dozing fits.

Glancing up at him discreetly, she wriggles just a little bit closer until her arm is flesh against his side and her head a hairs breadth from his bicep. He smirks but doesn't move, seemingly content to watch the silly movie with her.

Again she swears she'd closed her eyes for only a moment, when Tomas O'Malley – O'Malley the Alley Cat – is halting the milk car for Duchess and the kittens to get a ride back to Paris. Her cheek felt warm. She must've slumped against her Master's side when she dozed off.

Actually, her shoulders and arms felt warm… Oh! Alucard had draped his arm across her shoulders and his hand rested at her elbow, she was cuddled directly into his side. Mmm…warm…

No one could see them, and no one would.

Mumbling some nonsense about 'just resting my eyes' she pillowed her cheek back into his ribs and drifted off again amidst the sounds of singing cats. _Everybody wants to be a cat…_

Alucard shook his head as Seras fell more deeply asleep against his side. Well, even monsters liked a cuddle every now and then, hm? Watching the rest of the silly movie just for the hell of it, the ancient vampire petted his Childe's head absently.

Well, there's more than one way to find entertainment, after all.

* * *

_Special little edit note: _Woops, it was the orange kitten who was the painter. Fixed. XD Thanks for reminding me VanquishLithium.


	10. Sleepy

The Seldom Seen

**AN:** Proooobably the last update for today. I'm tired, which inspired this new chapter. Just because I can.

Y'all can feel free to suggest something you want to see and I'll give it a go. Right now I'm just writing whatever comes to mind.

* * *

_10: Sleepy_

Seras groaned and flopped face first into her pillow, half dangling off the bed at an awkward angle but too exhausted to do anything about it. She'd spent the better part of the night clearing out a ghoul infested ship yard while her Master took care of the inept vampire that created them. She'd spent a good half hour in the shower to get all the caked in ghoul grime off her skin and out of her hair. _Ew._

Dawn was quickly approaching, and she felt _so_ tired… With an excessive amount of effort on her part, the Police Girl managed to swing her legs up on the cushy mattress and into a slightly more dignified sprawl. Fumbling blindly for the remote, she slaps the button to lower her bed into the darkness and drifts off within seconds.

_…Nng? _What was that?

Rousing slightly, the blonde became aware of a presence in her bed. A very large one. Shifting uncomfortably, not liking the unexplained appearance of her Master, she stills when something trails across the tops of her shoulders soothingly.

Finding it too much effort to think about further, she grumbles something incoherent and buries her face back into her pillow. _So tired…_

Dreams of blood and screams and endless mocking laughter send her rolling to the side and straight into something warm and sturdy, yet soft. Liking the feel of it, she throws a leg over the warm thing possessively and buries her face into the slightly cool material of what her hazy mind thought was a shirt…

Vaguely concerned, she inhaled curiously; the smell of blood, gun powder, and a strange tickle that reminded her of wild mountain forests filled her senses. Alarming some pockets of her mind, and soothing others. Pushing back the prickle of awareness, the girl pulled herself closer to the warm thing instead.

The sensation of something soft tickling her nose made her frown and wriggle it – much like a bunny – to dislodge the offending sensation from her person. _Nng… Too early for this…_

Her pillow moved and a low chuckle reached her ears, "Sleepy little Kitten." The words tickled at her brain, tugging her consciousness annoyingly. Grunting, the girl stubbornly refused to heed its call and curled her fingers tighter into the soft material she lay upon. She wondered, blearily, where her blanket was… Then it settled over her shoulders and she sighed blissfully in her cocoon of warmth.

Stirring, again, restlessly… Shivering, she reaches out towards the warmth and frowns when she can't find it. She felt… lonely?

Her tired mind struggled to think that feeling over, wondering over the sensation of loss. That made no sense.

Groaning, she inhales deeply of the lingering smell of something… comforting and drifts back into a fitful sleep full of never ending shadows.

Just before she lost the last dregs of consciousness, she could swear she felt a hand stroking her hair comfortingly, and she sighed with a slight smile curling her lips. The darkness had a very small pinprick of light at the end now, though she could never reach it.


	11. Fruitpire

The Seldom Seen

_**AN:** _**WARNING**: This chapter is a little bit... _naughty._ I think the end might possibly qualify as a "lime". Maybe.

Despite the silly title, this actually isn't a humor chapter. So for those of you wanting a bit more hanky panky, this is getting close. XD

* * *

_11: "Fruitpire"_

Seras canted her head to one side, sitting at her table, and staring at an orange she'd grabbed from the kitchen earlier. An impulsive move, but she remembered that her Master drank wine… And wine was made from grapes, and grapes are fruit. So… Maybe..?

"What are you doing, Police Girl?" A deep voice crooned in her ear, sending shivers down her spine. Jumping slightly, she half turned her head to look into her Master's eyes – not covered by their usual yellow tinted glasses – "I was wondering if I could drink orange juice, since you drink wine, Master." She answered, straight to the point.

He grinned, unholy glee bringing the flickering golden swirls in his gaze to stark relief against the duller mahogany of his irises. "Did you now?" Snatching the orange up, he strolled casually to the other side of the table and sprawled indolently across her spare chair. The male looked the sphere over carefully before casually beginning to peel the tough skin away from the fruit inside.

Seras fidgeted, hands clasping under the table as she watched him somewhat warily. "Master..?"

"Blood is the currency of the soul… and juice is the blood of fruit. It won't increase your strength or even help with your healing, but it is quite… intoxicating." He answered, inhaling deeply in his pause between the last word. Her Master split the orange neatly down the middle and retrieved a single slice, holding it delicately between two fingers. This he extended across the table in offering to her, a strange look in his eyes. Seras' head tilted the other direction, before she hesitantly leaned forward, lips parting to show her dainty fangs. Flicking her gaze at his face, she shivered, and very gently bit into the proffered section, eyes rolling back into her head at the taste of the juice on her tongue. "Yessss… But only the juice, Seras."

Moaning, she sucked desperately at the flesh between her teeth, draining it to a dry husk within seconds. Alucard chuckled, and tugged the desiccated fruit from her mouth, swiping his thumb along her lower lip and bringing it to his own to lick the gathered droplet from his glove. Seras mewled and a flush spread across her cheeks, eyes glazed; she wanted **more**.

"Come to me, Seras." Alucard purred, and she obeyed; stumbling to her feet like a drunkard she made her way around the table and crawled into his lap, staring intently at the remaining pieces of orange. "Good girl." He murmured, one hand settling possessively on her hip while the other deftly retrieved another section to raise temptingly to her lips. She shivered and dragged her tongue around the outside of the slice, circling it slowly and brushing the tips of her Master's fingers – the stark contrast between fruit and glove nearly jarred her out of her daze – before leaning forward and capturing half of it in her mouth, fangs driving into the skin to drain the glorious nectar from within. _God…_ It was sweet, and tangy, and filled her belly in ways that blood never could, and, and, and… Squirming helplessly in her Master's lap as the ambrosia brought heat to her limbs and fogged her mind, she released the dry flesh with a pop and whined low in her throat for another.

She felt him shiver beneath her, his hot breath caressing the back of her neck as his hand pulled her backside flush against his taut abdomen. He nuzzled her neck and she gasped, arching at the explosion of pleasure across her nerves. She could _feel_ his smirk against her throat and it made her stomach clench with desire.

"Mmm, Seras… Remind me to try this with strawberries next time." The vibration of his voice across her skin made goosebumps ripple down her arms and she groaned wordlessly in approval.

Instead of a single slice like before, Alucard lifted the remaining half of the orange he'd been feeding her to her lips and brushed it along her lips teasingly. Striking fast as a cobra, she captured the curve of the fruit between her teeth, biting deeply to release a torrent of sticky juice into her greedy mouth. At the same time, she felt a sharp pain in her throat that faded swiftly to even more glorious pleasure. _Oh god…_

Writhing, lost in the grip of too much stimulation at once, she sucked desperately at the smooth, warm flesh held to her lips, feeling the draw on her blood match her feeding on the fruit. She felt his hand slide her gently across his lap to straddle one thigh and she bucked wantonly at the pressure between her legs. The hand pressed down on her hip, rocking her back and forth and white heat burst behind her eyes. Trembling, hands flying to the table to anchor herself to something, the blonde girl felt like panting, though her mouth was otherwise occupied with the remainders of the shriveling orange. _**'Yesss…'**_

The feedback of his pleasure over her pleasure in her mind was all it took to send her flying over the edge, keening and spasming against his larger frame. The exsanguinated orange fell from her slack mouth and she whimpered lowly as her Sire's fangs drew from her flesh and his tongue swept over the mark, sealing it. His smugness oozed over her thoughts thickly, and she wanted to feel annoyed, but her hazy brain just wanted to sleep. She was limp as a ragdoll against his chest, lids fluttering shut, and head lolling back almost painfully towards the support of his shoulder.

Alucard growled lowly in satisfaction as he gathered his limp Childe up and carried her to her bed, settling her nicely across the mattress and even tossing a blanket over her before pressing the button to lower her bed into the protection of darkness, "Good night, my little fruitpire." He mocked lightly, a perverse humor in his words, "We'll discuss this further another time." And with that the four poster coffin settled neatly into place, sealing her off from the world until the next rising of the moon.

* * *

Alucard grinned smugly to himself as he sunk his own hungry fangs into the untouched half of the orange, sucking it dry with a pleased hum. Disposing of the leftovers with a flick of his wrist, the ancient vampire spared one last glance at the Police Girl's bed-lid and shivered, "So innocent and corruptible…Ah, Seras."


	12. Sharing Is Caring

The Seldom Seen

**AN:** So, guess what? i got more followers/favoriters! They make me happy enough to get out small chapters.  
But the big chapters are now being reserved for when I get reviews. Yes I'm pulling that route. :P  
I'll still update every few days with little snuppets I come up with, probably more like this one since I like how it went.

I still love you, silent readers. But I love the vocal ones the most.

_PS: Title is random, just sounded cool. XD_

* * *

_12: Sharing Is Caring_

Seras tossed and turned fitfully in her bed, hands clenching in the sheets and ripping little crescent holes in them with her slowly growing claws. Darkness flickered at her edges, and when she groaned in the depths of her dreams, her fangs showed; extended far past their usual length to come close to overhanging her lower lip. Blood tears gathered at the corners of her eyes, threatening to fall and stain her pale face crimson.

_Seras Victoria stared stone faced at the wall, the nine year old was sitting in her room, alone. One of the orphanage workers walked down the hallway, saw her just sitting there, and sick of her sullen silence, kicked her out into the yard to 'try and get along with the others already'. The blonde stared at the swing set rather longingly, but it was full up, and the other kids hated her as much as she hated then, Instead, she wandered over to her favorite tree and flopped down against the trunk, looking at all the pretty flowers on the other side of the chain link fence surrounding the orphanage. Her mother loved flowers… Gasping at the pain in her heart, she shoved the memory back into her mental closet and plucked a handful of grass, shredding it idly._

_The sun started its descent into the horizon when she heard a strange sound. Looking up, she stared at the lumbering black hound tearing through the gardens and his trailing leash end. She felt the strangest draw towards that dog._

_Deciding to do something about it before the adults called the pound, she scrambled up the fence, nimble as a monkey, and dropped down in the patch of marigolds feet first. "Here doggy doggy doggy…" Holding her hand out flat, she edged closer to the loop of chain in the petunias. _

_The hound turned and Seras was startled to see red eyes, not just a brownish red, but like rubies soaked in blood. Keeping her cool, she inched closer still, hoping to grab the leash before it – he, she thought, unsure why – ran off. "Nice doggy, c'mere boy." Surprisingly, he obeyed and sniffed her hand pleasantly enough. Reaching for his leash, she hooked her fingers into the plastic covered loop and grinned at the great beast. "Hiya, boy. Did you escape your master? Just wanted to play in the flowers, huh?" She crooned to him cheerfully, feeling at ease with him despite his size nearly dwarfing her; his shoulders met her chest, and he could easily rip out her throat._

"_Hey, Ser found a dog!" A male voice called, and she cringed. "It's huge!" Five bodies followed her path over the fence and her least favorite group of boys jeered at her as they approached. "Aw, betcha it's harmless. Probably stupid if it let _her_ grab the leash." A round of vicious laughter followed this statement as the older boys spread out in an arc to cut off her escape. "Hey, it's got a collar, maybe we can get some reward money for returning it!"_

_Seras scowled and her grip tightened on the leash, body tensing to run. She knew where a pile of rocks was, and she'd need them with five against one. The dog growled and curled his lip back viciously as Fred got too close. "Shit!" Fred leaped back a good two feet and glared, "Stupid mutt."_

_The dog barked then, the sound loud and threatening, and the five boys glanced at each other nervously before identical cruel smirks curled their lips and they reached into their pants pockets for handfuls of rocks. Seras' eyes widened and she jumped in front of the dog to act as a shield, "Don't you touch him you bastards!"_

"_Oh look, Ser's got a new best friend." Fred mocked, "Can't get along with humans so you turn to animals huh? No wonder your parents left you here, you freak!"_

_Seras jerked, and lowered her head, teeth gritting visibly as she clenched her fists, "Take that back you fucking bastard!" She screamed, eyes blazing as she charged blindly at the red headed boy, leash forgotten at her feet. The first rock hit her in the corner of her eye, followed by another in her gut. The boys jeered and laughed as they pelted her with small stones, mocking her viciously and calling her a freak. Blood trickled down her cheek like a crimson tear and suddenly the dog was no longer content to sit and watch. The great black beast snarled and lunged at Davie, nearly taking his hand off as he let loose another projectile at the wounded girl. The blonde screamed bloody murder and a wet mark spread swiftly across his shorts. The other four shouted in alarm as the dog pounced and pinned Fred to the ground, growling and nearly foaming at the mouth with rage._

_Davie and the other three bolted, screaming, over the fence to get an adult, or just get away from the scene of the crime. "Ser… hey Ser call him off." Fred pleaded, his own pants wetted by urine as he stared fearfully up at the set of teeth hovering in front of his eyes._

_Seras did nothing, simply stood there, bruised and bloody and staring with cold eyes at the scene before her. Her silence was her answer._

_Just as the dog leaned down to do something horrible a sharp whistle rent the air and he stilled. "Heel, Alucard." A young girl, no older than thirteen at the most, said as she appeared at the edge of the gardens. Platinum blonde haired framed a solemn face, large circular glasses covering her ice blue eyes, and a silver whistle in her hand. The outfit she wore reminded Seras of the uniforms the fancy prep school kids had._

_The dog – Alucard – grudgingly backed up and off the boy to stalk towards his owner, and Fred took the chance to run screaming in fear himself. Seras still didn't move, frozen in place by the tumult of emotions crashing through her head. She would have let Alucard kill Fred for her, would have stood by as he mauled the boy, and she wouldn't have regretted it. Was that any way for a future police officer to act?_

"_What's your name, girl?" The other blonde asked as she took up the hound's leash and approached._

"_Seras, Seras Victoria." She answered, locking gazes with the other girl for a brief moment before glancing away. Blood trickled from various nicks along her arms and leg, and the most noticeable one next to her eye. Alucard approached and wagged his tail before leaning down to lick the salt and copper from her skin. His owner looked shocked and about ready to yank the chain in reprimand when Seras smiled and patted his head. When he finished licking the blood from her legs and arms he turned his great head towards hers and ran his tongue over her face in one slobbery swipe, Seras laughed and made a playfully disgusted sound. The dog's owner gave her an odd look before pushing her glasses up her nose, "You may call me…"_

Seras bolted up in bed and whammed her head on the lid of her four poster coffin, swearing blackly. "Was that… it couldn't be, could it?" She remembered that dog, and how the boys had lied and told the orphanage workers she'd set the beast on them. No one believed her side of the story and they'd sent her packing tp another orphanage out in the country.

She frowned and looked at her feet, wondering if that memory was tampered with – she didn't remember the dog's name or the owner before now. But… she'd noticed that since becoming a vampire all of her senses, and even the clarity of her memories had sharpened. It was a double edged sword when it came to remembering the bad moments of her childhood. "Master… did we really meet before Cheddar Village?" She asked thin air, not really expecting an answer.

None came, and she truly wasn't surprised. It was still daylight out there. Shaking her head, deciding not to dwell on it, she sighed and flopped back onto the mattress and curled up in her blankets to try and get a little more shut eye.


	13. Mingling (p1)

The Seldom Seen

**AN: **Fwee! Reviews. *heartsymbol*

This is actually the beginning of a multi-parter.:D  
I have chapter two ready and waiting for enough reviews. ;) Or for enough time to pass. :P

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_13: Mingling (p1)_

"Alucard, you have a mission." Sir Integra's cool voice nearly echoed in the silence of her massive study. Seras looked up curiously, to the side and just behind her Master. They'd been waiting, standing at the other side of the desk, while Sir Integra smoked her cigar and gazed out the window pensively. "I do not like it, but Her Majesty insists. You are to accompany a group of newly 'reformed' vampires under the control of the Americans and watch them hunt. The Americans are attempting to wheedle a promise of teaching from us, but I have refused. Observation only; unless it amuses you." Her last words sounded rather indulgent, and Seras canted her head to the left curiously and peered up at her Master through her bangs. "As you wish, my Master." He replied, face blank and eyes hidden behind his usual yellow glasses.

"You will be leaving by plane tomorrow, and your scheduled return is a week from now." Seras thought it a little odd that the Hellsing woman phrased it that way; 'scheduled return', as though they'd return sooner? "Do try not to draw undue attention, Servant. You are dismissed, Walter has left your mission criteria in folders in your rooms as well as your blood." With that, Sir Integra made a bit of a show of looking over her papers and typing reports into her computer.

Alucard chuckled softly and phased through the floor, leaving Seras to stand there awkwardly for a moment before she saluted the working woman and left through the door. Her Master was a show off…

Seras stirred restlessly, feeling groggy and half starved. Well, feeling half starved wasn't that unusual, she had less revulsion towards the blood packs after a few… _incidents_, but she didn't like the way they made her feel. _And her Master talked to her, if only to scold her for not drinking the blood._ Tossing that thought back into the corner it came from, the girl grumbled and rolled over, only to hit a wall. What? Scrunching her nose in distaste, she rolled the other direction, and hit another wall. Claustrophobia gripped her and her eyes snapped open in the darkness of her coffin. _Oh god._ There was a reason Seras had her four poster coffin – she couldn't _stand_ being locked in such a small space with no room to move, it brought back horrible childhood memories that even years of therapy couldn't fully repress. Pushing on the lid to crawl out of the cramped quarters, it didn't budge. She was locked in.

Whimpering, shoulders hunching, she bit her lip and tried to rock back and forth, but had no room to sit up. The tang of her own blood in her mouth made her jerk and swing her hands up to her head, cradling it and pressing on her forehead painfully. _**'Master…'**_ She called weakly, mind fogged with flickering images of pain and blood and screams and, and, and…

'_**Police Girl?'**_ His voice reached into her head, drawing her partially from the vacuum of her memories. _**'Please, please let me out, Master. I'll go mad.'**_ When he didn't reply, she began to panic even further and started beating her fists against the lid desperately. _Oh god, let me out, let me out, let me out!_

The wood cracked and began to splinter in the middle before a hand shot through the still solid barrier and grasped both her wrists almost painfully. "Stop your thrashing." A masculine voice demanded, and it took her brain a few seconds to realize it was her Master. She relaxed marginally and realized that her breath was rattling in a hideous wheeze from the lack of oxygen in the coffin, and stopped it. "Master, please let me out." She had only just enough air to speak, her blind panic having sucked most of it away into dead lungs. He growled irritably, "We are flying over the ocean, Police Girl, you need to stay in your coffin or it will drain your strength and leave you weak as a new born kitten." Seras wouldn't mind that, it was far preferable to being cooped up in this box any longer. Perhaps reading this in her mind, he growled again. "You do not have enough blood in your system to withstand the remaining journey, Police Girl, and I will not have you embarrass me by looking weak in front of the Americans." Damn him and his infernal pride! The grip on her wrists tightened punishingly for that thought and she winced. _**'Please, Master, I can't stand it. I'll go mad.'**_

'_**Then sleep, Police Girl. Sleep.'**_ The words echoed with power and darkness consumed her. Blissfully silent darkness, untainted by mortal fears. The last thing she felt before her consciousness was swallowed up was his touch retreating, and she felt a pang of sadness at being left alone again.

"Wake up, Police Girl, we're here." Her eyes fluttered open to stare at her Master, he was kneeling beside her coffin with the lid thrown up out of the way. She blinked, and a groggy smile tweaked her lips, "Oh, hello, good morning Master." His eyes glowed for a moment and his lips parted in an answering smirk, "Good evening. It's time to go, Police Girl."

She sat up with an inhuman ease, and glanced around curiously before clambering obediently from the hateful box and standing at attention, waiting for her Master's guidance or orders. The room they were in was rather large, but blandly decorated in sterile whites and silvers, a single looming door took up quite a bit of the nearest wall, and curious, almost bunk bed like structures, lined the other walls. It resembled a barracks, but there were no beds in those metal frames, only solid containers that reminded her suspiciously of coffins.

…Oh, duh. Of course they were coffins. This must be the facility Sir Integra had mentioned they'd be staying at for the next week. Ugh, there was no way she'd be able to sleep properly here.

"We have our own quarters." Her Master's voice interrupted her thoughts, "but they insisted upon storing your coffin here to keep up appearances." Clearly he was no less pleased with this assignment than she was to have flown here. Though it did sound nice to meet vampires she wouldn't have to kill… He snorted and began walking towards the door, and she followed quickly, not wanting to be left behind.

They entered what appeared to be a cafeteria and the smell of medical blood – distinctified by the sting of disinfectant, plastic, and old pennies – filled Seras' senses, making her teeth _ache_ to pierce flesh. The blonde flicked her gaze to her Master, recalling his comments about not embarrassing him; silently seeking permission before wandering off for her own 'lunch'. His arched brow made her smother a grimace and she stayed obediently at his side, watching a trio of vampires approach them with neutral and somewhat inviting expressions. She noticed, then, that all the undead in the room – Hellsing operatives excluded – wore the same bland uniform and black belts with silvery writing scrawled across their length. How odd. Perhaps it was like her Master's gloves? _Well, it's a good thing vampires don't need to use the loo…_ Alucard's amusement washed over her mind and she flushed slightly, her Master was skimming her thoughts again, apparently. _**'Police Girl, remind me to teach you mental shielding at some point.'**_ He confirmed her theory with a quiet chuckle.

The apparent leader of the trio – a tall raven haired man with black eyes – spoke first, "You're Alucard, I take it? The vampire sent from England to watch us and report how obedient we are to our orders when not under human supervision. But who is your companion? We were not informed of two visitors." His voice seemed… _irritating_ somehow, as though he were trying too hard to appeal to her senses; it sent warning bells clanging in her head that he was one to watch carefully. His pretense of discreetness at leering over her figure didn't help, either.

Her Master seemed to agree for he curled his lip and clapped a hand possessively on her shoulder, "She is my fledgling, and not to be touched by you or yours." The menace in his voice was clear and she suppressed a shiver of feminine appreciation. The two vampires with the unnamed spokesperson had no such reservations, and their eyes raked hungrily over her Sire's form. Their disrespectful ogling bothered her, and she barely resisted the urge to growl and bare her fangs in warning. Perhaps meeting vampires she wasn't supposed to kill wasn't all that it was cracked up to be.

"May we have a name for this fledgling? Calling her such seems rather unnecessary when we already know yours, Alucard." Apparently her Master's curtness meant he dropped the 'nice guy' act, for his tone was rather challenging, without being openly provocative, and he offered none of the honorifics due a nosferatu of her creator's age and power. Seras didn't like him.

"You may address her as Officer Victoria and nothing more."

Well this meeting was getting off to a great start… Not.

"You know," Seras piped up, a cheerful, but vicious smile on her lips, "It's considered polite to offer your own name when asking another's. Unless you want us to say 'hey you' to get your attention. It may get confusing, though, with how many of you there are." Her words dripped saccharine sweetness as she folded her hands together at her stomach, affecting a casual, but attentive pose at the red clad male's side. She noticed then, absently, that her usual uniform of a mid sleeved jacket and miniskirt had been replaced by an ensemble not dissimilar to her Sire's, only in the familiar gold color of Hellsing, the badge on her left shoulder. _Huh._

"Fine, _Officer Victoria_." The other sneered, "you may address me as…" She zoned out, ignoring the introductions around the room. She was sure her Master was doing the same. **'**_**Blah blah blah. Are you sure I can't kill them Master? They annoy me,'**_

'_**Ah, Seras…'**_ He purred, enjoying her darkness. _**"Use the excuse of being on the field.'**_ She got the Impression of sharp teeth bared in a wolfish grin and his consent to her violent urges sent a thrill through her.

Somewhere in the back of her mind she wondered where this aggression came from, she wasn't usually this hostile to people she just met. Shrugging it off once the sham of pleasantry was over with, she sauntered over to the ice chest, picked out a bag, sent a subtle glance over her shoulder to her Master, and retrieved two extra. Plopping herself down at an empty table and setting the extra to one side, Seras bit into the bag ravenously, draining it in seconds. Her Master's presence loomed at her back, and she picked up one of the spares to offer it up over her shoulder for him to take. He did. The fledgling eyed the last bag consideringly before shrugging and offering that up as well. If she was still hungry she could get another easily enough.

"Sooo… _Officer_ Victoria." A voice drawled as a much smaller presence dropped itself opposite her at the table, her blue eyes turned that way curiously. "How long've you been a va-…excuse me, a _fledgling_?" A brown haired, black eyed, and still lingeringly tanned male that looked to be in his early twenties asked.

Seras' brow twitched slightly and she half turned her gaze back to her Master, before shrugging, "I think about six months give or take." To be honest she hadn't been keeping much track of the time. It seemed fruitless when it no longer held meaning to her; she was eternal unless someone killed her. _Not to mention her beginning as a vampire seemed both eons back and as close as yesterday, it got confusing sometimes._

"Six months? What are you, stupid or something?" The male guffawed rudely, "I was out from under my maker's wing in two." He bared his teeth, and she noted with a hint of smugness that her dainty little fledgling fangs were longer.

"Only fools rush in and take a crash course in immortality." Alucard replied for her, sneering. "And judging by the smell of you, your maker was barely past a fledgling themselves. Weakness is passed through the blood."

Refraining from comment herself, Seras recalled that incident in the hospital with Anderson… Her Master had offered her freedom almost too quickly himself, but something had kept her from accepting, perhaps knowing she'd never survive a day without him as new as she was.

The male spluttered and snarled, dark eyes smoldering like coals, "You think you're so much better than I am?!" Blustering with false confidence, he sneered, signing his death warrant, "I challenge you, you bastard. I'm the strongest in my coven!"

Alucard snorted. "Challenge accepted." With a flick of his wrist the stupid male's head was separated from his shoulders. "Your opponent was too strong and now you're dead. What a pity." He sounded bored, and truthfully, Seras felt the same.

The body spurted a quick geyser of blood, slumped over onto the table, and began disintegrating.

Shocked silence filled the cafeteria and Seras got up, fetched another blood bag, drained it, and turned to her Sire with a pleasantly neutral look on her face, "So, Master." She began calmly, "When do we start our observations of these … _reformed _vampires?"

The silence swelled with black muttering, and one of the females stepped forward. "How could you do that to him?" She demanded, looking stricken, "You're supposed to be impartial witnesses!"

Seras felt a tug at her heartstrings, but pushed the reaction back. Human emotions were considered a sign of weakness – the softer ones anyways – and she was determined to mirror her Sire's attitude – though probably not the 'bat shit crazy at the drop of a hat' – and do him proud in front of these strange vampires. They rubbed her the wrong way, the lot of them. She couldn't quite put her finger on why, either.

When the girl began to cry salt water tears, not the blood she'd half expected, Seras' heart clenched in sympathy. But she wasn't here to be their friend, no, she _couldn't_ be their friend; there was just something about them that repulsed her and prevented such a bonding.

'_**They are made from inferior stock. Weakness begets weakness. They are nearly on the same level as the FREAKS we hunt. As my Childe, you are rightfully prejudiced against these diluted mockeries of unlife.'**_ Her Master's voice lectured, and she felt almost queasy for a moment before it passed. Seras didn't like this situation, how these surroundings made her feel and act, but she'd stick to her mission and observe them in action. _And kill any of them that looked at her Master that way again._

"Sir Integra ordered us to join them on their hunts, Police Girl." Alucard answered, ignoring the lesser creature's outburst, "We begin our observations on the field."

One of the other males began to stalk forward with a furious expression on his face, but was held back by his friends. The sound of their tussling and the crying girl were the only noises in the otherwise silent room, and her Master turned to leave. She followed him.

There didn't seem to be any hunt tonight.

* * *

Seras stared at the single room, recalling that they didn't expect two of them… but still! Sir Integra must have said something, right? But there was only one bed. _Come to think of it, why was it a bed when the barracks were filled with coffins?_ There was an adjoining bathroom, too. Maybe this was a room for the humans who held the various leashes in the institute? She kind of wanted a shower, but had no spare clothes, and didn't feel fully comfortable being in the same room as her Master wearing only a towel.

Shifting from foot to foot, she made a bee line for the couch against the far wall opposite the bed and flung herself on it to claim as her bed for the day and prevent any… incidents with sharing the king sized mattress with Alucard. He chuckled and dropped himself into the cushy chair at the office desk close to the bathroom door, propping his feet up on the wooden surface.

Glancing at him suspiciously from the corner of her eye, Seras stretched her arms up behind her head to act as a cradle against the arm rest, and sighed. She didn't feel tired in the least. _Where's the… Oh._ The tv she'd been looking for was situated opposite the bed, much like a hotel room. Glancing again at her Master, she wrinkled her nose before getting up, snatching the remote from the bed, and swiftly returning to her claimed spot. Flipping the idiot box on, she scrolled mindlessly through the channels for something to watch. Finally she settled on a cartoon channel, amusing herself with the animated depiction of vampires. Heh.

Time passed and she felt her eyelids growing slowly heavier, though it felt no where near dawn. Yawning, the remote fell from her limp grip and clattered to the floor.

Floating in a sea of fog, she felt vaguely the sensation of being picked up and carried, and set down into glorious softness. _Mmm…_

Warmth settled beside her, and she rolled to wrap an arm possessively around it, burying her face into her oddly firm pillow. Sighing, she drifted deeper into the numb sensation, a purr resonating in her bones when she felt a stroking sensation along her hair.

Dimly, so dimly she was surprised she noticed, she heard the tv still playing. _'Master must be watching…'_ The thought faded like her senses and she fell peacefully into darkness, feeling warm and comforted.

* * *

Alucard smirked as he petted his cuddling Childe, amused at her possessive hold around his waist. Her cheek was pillowed on his thigh quite pleasantly.

He enjoyed their closeness, and rewarded her obedience with dreamless sleep. Midians and dreams were a terrible combination.

Only half watching the mindless blathering program on the screen, the elder vampire settled quite comfortably into the padded headrest of the large bed, amused when Seras curled closer still to entangle her legs with his. Continuing his rhythmic petting of her sunshine bright locks, he found himself content to wait the remainder of the night and day away like this until the next rise of the moon brought some action into their tedious mission of diplomacy.


	14. Observation (p2)

The Seldom Seen

_**AN:**_The reviews made me so haappeeee... *heartsymbol*  
I don't have p3 typed out just yet, but all your reviews for p1 have already earned it being posted as soon as it's finished. :]

I added a little extra in after I got back home and saw all the new comments, but I'm a bit tired, so forgive me if the ending seems a little odd. ^^; _Unless I fall asleep right after posting, I'll start work on p3 right away._

**OH YEAH! WARNING:** There's a bit of swearing and carnage. I don't think it's enough to up the rating yet. But maybe I'm wrong. You guys can tell me._  
_

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_14: Observation (p2)_

Seras woke slowly, mumbling nonsense into her pillow as she snuggled deeper into the warmth. Her pillow moved, and her groggy brain connected it to the chuckling trickling into her ears like warm honey. _Mmm…_ There was something achingly familiar about that sensation. Taking a deep breath, her mind glazed further as the comforting scent of her Sire numbed her senses. _Wait… What?_

Crawling out of her sleepy daze, Seras cracked an eye open to gaze up at the familiar figure of her Master, though at a rather odd angle; the most prominent point of his face was the underside of his jaw. Shifting, Seras realized with a flush that her pillow was his lower stomach, and that her arms and legs were tangled quite cozily with his long charcoal suited limbs. "…Wasn't I sleeping on the couch?" She questioned, fingers idly petting the wrinkles in his pants, not quite willing to move yet despite her mild embarrassment.

"I moved you." He answered back, amusement roughening his voice to that low tone she loved, "A gentleman does not leave a lady to sleep on the couch when there's only one bed." He grinned wickedly and her inner girly-girl melted into a puddle.

"Yeah? All the stories I read said the gentleman takes the couch or the floor, not the bed with the lady…" She wasn't really annoyed, though, despite her playful grumbling.

"I never claimed to be a gentleman, Seras." The use of her name shocked her and sent a tingle of appreciation down her spine. Rather than continue the banter, she blinked and looked around for a clock, "What time is it, Master?"

"Past sunset, I can hear the others stirring. I believe we'll be asked to join them on a hunt within the hour." He answered, and ran his fingers through her hair. Leaning into the touch with a purr, Seras relaxed into a boneless heap of pleasure.

A tentative knock came at their door and Seras grunted, rolling over to sit up at the edge of the bed and grumpily retrieve her boots from the floor. "Uhm… Alucard? Officer Victoria? We received a report of an attack, and will be leaving in ten minutes…" If she recognized that voice correctly, it was the girl who had cried over the death of the moron who didn't know when to back down. Finished tugging on her boots, she glanced at her Master to see him waiting by the door expectantly. Nodding, she joined him just as the girl was about to knock again, and the door flung itself open dramatically, with her fist raised in mid air.

The vampire shrieked and jumped back a good five feet in surprise, her back colliding with the opposite wall in the hall. Jerking herself upright, the petite brunette led them with stiff posture to the generic white mini van outside. Seras cringed at the thought of sharing seat space with one of the others, and glanced hopefully up at her Sire. He smirked, opened the front passenger door, sat down, and grabbed her around the waist to drag her into his lap. Squeaking and flushing slightly, Seras bit her lip and reached for the seatbelt. What? She was a forner police officer, and went through training since she was sixteen. Seatbelts are important.

The other nine piled into the three back seat benches, and the driver shot the pair a sideways glance before shrugging, putting his own seatbelt on for appearances' sake and started off into the night.

Alucard chuckled in her ear and rested his hands on her thighs, fingers tracing innocuous designs on the material of her slacks, "Mm, Police Girl, I like your other uniform better." To be a tease he ran his tongue along the edge of her earlobe and she stiffened, biting her lip harder to smother the moan. _**'Master!'**_

'_**I find I no longer care what rumors they spread, Police Girl. You are my property to do with as I please.'**_ His left hand squeezes playfully at her inner thigh, unable to find any flab on her toned legs.

Cheeks flaming, she looked resolutely away from him, the driver, and any damned body that could see them, keeping her gaze locked onto the window to admire the scenery. It felt like a cliché for them to be driving out of a forest, but she appreciated the night scene nonetheless and even opened the window a crack to get a breath of fresh air. _America is quite large._ She thought admiringly, _they have so many different terrains. Back home it's only one or two things, not all this._

'_**Police Girl, remind me to take you on a tour through Europe sometime.'**_ Her Master murmured, sounding pleased by her appreciation for the pockets of untamed nature.

When they finally pulled to a stop it was at a local city park with dim orange streetlamps along the outer edges. Arching a brow, Seras unclicked the seatbelt and pushed open the passenger door to hop out onto the parking lot. The van was the only car here… Conspicuous much? Shrugging she half turned to observe her Sire and the diluted vampires as they filed out of the back seats. One of the females stumbled and fell onto Alucard. For some reason that made her see red and she snarled, grabbing the wench's arm and throwing her to the asphalt even before her Sire could sneer with his own comment or retaliation. The wench's wrist snapped when she broke her fall, and Seras felt a sick satisfaction at the injury. None of these _things_ were worthy to touch her Sire.

Alucard laughed, delighted by Seras' reaction, and clapped a possessive hand over her shoulder once more.

The wench stared up at them for a moment before her face flushed cherry red, "What the fuck was that for?!" She screamed, getting to her feet jerkily.

Seras growled, baring her fangs, "You touched my Master. Don't. You'll regret it if you do." Sending a menacing look at the other females – five of them – in the group of eleven they were to observe, the fledgling crossed her arms over her chest and affected a bored air.

The others grumbled to themselves as they pulled the injured member into their group, as though shielding her from the 'psycho brits'. Seras was amused.

They tramped into the park and drifted towards the trees gathered at the edge by the public bathrooms, Alucard and Seras hanging back a couple feet to observe their behavior. Seras noticed with some disgust that their attempts at stealth were deplorable. _Did none of them learn the importance of subtlety? Killing the witnesses is all well and good, but security cameras can still capture them in the act._ She'd like to blame the 'reformation' process, but that seemed like it was giving them too much credit. These weaklings aren't true hunters, they blend too casually with the mortals. Perhaps it was her Master's blood prejudice talking through her, again.

She wondered for a moment what they were even hunting; FREAKS? Rogue vampires killing without stealth? What sort of supernatural malady befell the Americas? Well, she supposed she'd find out shortly.

Spotting the swing set, Seras grinned at it, she loved swings. Shaking her head to clear it of the distracting thoughts, she jumped up into the nearest tree and hopped up another few branches to perch in the concealment of the thicker foliage. Her Master looked up at her with a smirk and simply appeared on the branch beside her, breath tickling her ear, "Staying out of the line of fire, Police Girl?"

That made her think – did the vampires they were observing even have firearms? Maybe they had silencers. She didn't really care.

"Yes, Master." She answered, scanning the woods for signs of movement. There, to the right, were sounds of a scuffle. Hopping through the trees nimble as a monkey – and secretly thinking that this made her feel like those silly ninjas in cartoons – Seras watched two of the uniformed vampires corner a ragged and feral looking creature against a tree trunk. The thing was gibbering and wild eyed as the two approached it and took an arm each in merciless holds as it thrashed violently and kicked desperately at thin air. Within seconds the pair had pulled the monster in half like a wishbone. Slightly sickened by the barbaric tactics – a gun was far more humane even if they didn't deserve it – her sharp ears caught another disturbance and she bounded off in search of it. Screaming. Children screaming.

Alarmed, she hot footed it and landed in the clearing with a snarl on her lips. _Oh god…_ There were five of the uniform wearers, two of them dismembering another deranged thing, while the other three had opened the tent it had targeted and dragged the two children and their father out into the open. "What the **FUCK** do you think you're **doing**?" Seras roared, seeing red. One of the trio, a male that looked suspiciously like the 'spokesperson' they'd talked to yesterday, sunk his teeth into the screaming child's neck. The female holding the other child looked at Seras quizzically, "What? It's just a little snack. No need to tell anyone."

Seras gagged from the sheer depth of her rage and felt like vomiting, though her stomach didn't work that way anymore. "What the fuck is wrong with you, you fucking bastards? You don't target **children** as **snacks**!" Launching herself at the female in a golden blur, she tears the bitch's left arm off at the shoulder and beats her in the face with the protruding bone. Remembering the move her Master used on the Dandy Man, she snarled and swung her boot out at the other's knee, inverting the joint in an explosion of blood. She collapsed with a shriek and Seras caught the child to cradle her protectively to her chest.

The little girl fainted dead away and Seras glared at the man holding the unconscious father. With a sneer down at the flailing pathetic creature at her feet, Seras slammed her boot down into her chest, crushing the bones easily. With an extra shove, her foot pierced the woman's chest cavity and pulverized her heart into paste. The corpse began disintegrating slowly.

The coward dropped the unbitten adult and Seras set the child down next to him before turning on the one who'd been drinking from his screaming victim. "To paraphrase another moron just like you scum; you're so fucking dead and you don't even know it yet."

The raven haired monster dropped the desiccated corpse – and she was surprised to see it wasn't putrefying yet to become a ghoul, perhaps these watered down undead lacked that ability? Which was odd since the FREAKS and vampires in England had it – and bared his bloody fangs in a snarl of his own. Seras lunged for his fucking throat, and her vision went red. Not black, though it felt similar, but deep burning crimson fury red.

"Police Girl, they're dead." Alucard's voice broke her blood trance and she shook her head to clear her vision, staring at the deteriorating remains of the last vampire in the group of five from the clearing. _Whoa, that was freaky…_

"…How much time did I lose?" She asked, knee and elbow deep in blood stains on her new modest uniform. It felt like some was in her hair, too. Ugh.

"Only five minutes." To his credit he looked completely calm and neutral over her little murdering episode. "The others are coming." He added offhandedly, standing near the unconscious humans. Seras joined him and watched the treeline for movement. _Ew. _She felt kind of sticky.

"Wha-… what the fuck?!" A voice exclaimed to her right and Seras pivoted on her heel to turn still red eyes in that direction. "Shit!" The startled vampire leaped back as he caught her gaze, and took in the state of her clothes. "Fucking psycho brit bitch, what is **wrong** with you?!" He screamed, hands clenching into fists as the remaining five of the hunting party gathered at his back.

"What's wrong with **me**?" Seras snarled, "What's wrong with **you**? Targeting children? CHILDREN!" Flailing her arm in the direction of the little boy's corpse, she almost snapped again, and her Master shifted his weight, uncrossing his arms from his chest.

"Pff, they're just humans, and the feral one would have eaten them anyways." A female voice muttered from the crowd.

"Just humans? May I remind you sick fucks that **you used to be human too**?!" Seras was just about ready to tear the remainder of the group into bloody little pieces when her Sire placed a restraining hand on her upper arm and she jerked in surprise. Alucard was stopping her? Pushing at the encroaching red edges of her vision, the Police Girl visibly forced herself to relax. "The point of hunting down these 'feral' vampires is to save the humans from them, not claim them as snacks." She finished, tone glacial and shoulders stiff.

The six vampires glanced at each other for a moment and she heard mutterings of 'traitor' 'human lover' and various derogatory invectives. "Fine, whatever, let's go back to base."

_God she wanted to kill them…_

'_**Maybe later, Police Girl, after I call Integra with our nightly report.'**_ Her Master's voice soothed her ruffled feathers and she glanced at him gratefully. _**'What about the humans, Master?'**_

It didn't seem right to just leave them here in the open, unable to defend themselves. Her Master turned his head and looked at the tent, and she got the hint, crawling in and finding the duffle bag inside with the father's cell phone. Dialing the police she made some bogus report of a bear attack in the woods and hung up, following her Sire and the supposedly tamed monsters back to the much less crowded mini van.

'_**Master, are there any others like us left?'**_

'_**Some, the lines are diluted, but pockets of the older blood remain in the wilder countries. Humans aren't the only ones to change as their species expands.'**_

'_**I don't like them, Master.'**_

'_**I know, Police Girl. I know.'**_


	15. Departure (p3)

The Seldom Seen

_**AN:**_Weeelp... here it is. XD Part three. It didn't go the way I'd originally planned, but I hope you'll like it. :]

I have a very special little chapter planned for tomorrow! So even the non american readers can be thankful I updated. :P  
See you theeeeen. *heartsymbol*

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_15: Departure (p3)_

Seras purred quietly as her Master petted along her side, they were still sharing the front seat and she found herself strangely addicted to sitting in his lap. Nestling her cheek on her Sire's shoulder, she lazed against him with her eyes closed and blocking out the bubbling auras of the others around them. Their discontent tasted like sour milk in the air.

But for the lord's sake, even her Master didn't target children and he would commit atrocity after atrocity just for the fun of it! She felt a faint flicker of amusement tickling her senses from her eavesdropping Master.

'_**Police Girl… have you ever read Dracula?'**_ He purred into her head, and she blinked, confused. _**'Nooo…'**_ It had never really appealed to her, too long winded and dry.

She could _feel_ his smirk as he patted her head condescendingly as though saying it was nothing. Grumbling silently to herself over her Master's mercurial nature, she shifted her position slightly to rest her cheek on her hand. Minutes passed and she slowly began inching her fingers towards her Sire's hair, waning to feel it against her skin and confirm if it was as soft as it looked. Catching sight of the dried blood on her sleeve made her grimace a bit, she hated trying to get bloodstains out, and it made her clothes feel crunchy. Shrugging it off to deal with later – they were almost back to the base – she obeyed temptation and gently tangled her fingers in the ink black locks at the back of his neck, lightly scraping her fingers along his scalp as she indulged her whim to pet him in return. His hair felt glorious, like liquid silk. _Mmmm…_

She felt him shiver in response and his fingers spread wide across her hip. The little fledgling lost herself easily in his presence and was surprised when the car began to slow and eased into park at the facility's garage.

The two Hellsing vampires made their way to their shared room, uncaring of the rebellious mutterings and black swearing behind their backs. If even Seras, a still relatively new fledgling in vampire terms, could slaughter them without a scratch… why worry? Not to mention her Master could kill them all in the blink of an eye. Smugly assured of this, the Police Girl decided to try showering with her clothes on to get her uniform blood free again. It worked to an extent and she hung them to dry over the curtain rod. But now… She had no replacement clothes, she'd have to rely on the towels. Damnit.

Wrapping herself in three towels; one around her head, another around her abdomen, and the third for her rather generous amounts of breast, she entered the main room in time to catch the tail end of her Master's report to his master. "…experiment was a failure, my Master. They follow the outline of the orders and claim the prey for their own gluttony. The Americans used inferior stock, and I recommend termination of the project to start fresh." Faintly Seras heard Integra's reply, but the words were muffled beyond comprehension. "Yes, my Master. I await your orders with pleasure." He hung up the phone and she was reminded eerily of the time in that hotel…

"What did Sir Integra say?" Seras asked, rubbing the towel around her hair to dry the sun bright locks. "She will confer with the Americans and relay our report. We are to wait for our next orders before doing anything, Police Girl."

"Oh. Is Sir Integra mad at me?"

"No, she liked this mission no more than I, and you acted in the preservation of human life."

A mischievous spark glinted in her eye as she peered up at her Sire, "Does Sir Integra know you killed one before I did?"

He chuckled and an answering smirk quirked his lips, "Details, Police Girl, details."

Seras shook her head and tossed her hair towel negligently towards the bathroom, flopping down on the bed and immediately wrapping herself up in a blanket cocoon to preserve what remained of her modesty around her Master. His smirk widened as he sat down on the opposite edge of the bed and propped his booted feet up on the mattress. She crinkled her nose, "Master, it's not nice to put shoes on the bed."

He ignored her and braced his back against the headboard, reaching for the remote casually. Blowing a puff of air at her bangs irritably, she rolled so her back was to him and hogged the available pillows to try and get some shut eye. Which was damn near impossible when her mind kept repeating the fact that she was essentially naked in the same bed as her Master.

Speaking of her Master… she noticed he seemed to be taking a more laid back role in their missions lately, content to watch her darkness unfold and step in only when necessary or bored. Ever since that incident in Rio, they'd been forced to wait for the Nazis next move, which seemed to be taking millennia… heh. Too much idle time left her to over think things, apparently.

'_**Sleep, Police Girl, your mind is noisier than the movie I'm watching.'**_ Alucard's mind-voice teased and she felt a tug of power in those words. More high handed tactics… but she did appreciate the break from her thoughts as darkness swallowed her whole. _Yes, my Master._

The phone was ringing.

Whimpering pitifully, Seras buried her face into her pillow. The pillow wasn't nearly as soft as she remembered, though…

The ringing stopped.

She sighed and sank deeper into the drowsy world of half awareness, pleased someone else got the phone. …The thought bothered her vaguely, but she swatted it away.

The sound of laughter jolted her into awareness like a shot from a gun and she shrieked in shock. Her Master laughed even harder at her reaction and she glared at him, then her eyes widened in horror as she realized her position. "MASTER!" Somehow – and she had a sneaking suspicion he was the 'how' – she had unwrapped herself from her blanket cocoon to throw her legs across his and snuggle back into his side like yesterday. Thankfully she still wore her towels… Flushing so deeply it reached the tops of her breasts, she scrambled hastily to the bathroom to put on her clothes, damnit. His mocking laughter followed her and she slammed the door in childish retaliation.

"That is **excellent** news my Master." She hard him through the door, and, curious, she pressed her ear to the wood to catch the words more clearly. "Ahh… you know how I despise weakness. It shall be done, my Master." He paused, and her brows raised to her hairline at the grudging tone in his next reply, "Ruin my fun… all right, I shall leave the building intact." She snickered, her Master's love for collateral damage was well known. "If the Americans must try again, my Master, advise them to use less degenerate bloodlines." He sounded rather cold, and it sent a shiver down her spine, so she turned to her clothes and breathed a sigh of relief that they were mostly dry. Well, a little dampness never hurt anyone. Squirming into her slacks – she **hated** slacks – and shirt, she glanced down at the nearly see through material and grimaced. Throwing the jacket on overtop of it, she shivered slightly, wishing it was drier but not willing to continue going about in just a pair of towels.

Emerging from the bathroom at last, Seras blinked as she noticed her Master wasn't even in the room. _**'Master? Where are you?'**_

'_**Busy working, Police Girl. Stay in the room, I'll be done shortly.'**_ His maniacal laughter followed suit and sent a new shiver down her spine. Working? The smell of blood in the air clued her in pretty quickly.

Putting two and two together, Seras surmised that the Americans gave consent, if not approval, of their first batch of 'reformees' to be exterminated to start from scratch. _Serves them right, the child targeting assholes._

Just then the door burst down and a crazed looking wanna-be-pire lunged at her with a howl, "If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me, you traitorous bitch!" Unfortunately, Seras' reaction time was slowed by not eating for the past two nights, and the other female sunk her teeth into Seras' arm as she raised it in a block. Yelping, she struck out with her foot as she fell off balance and sent the other blonde flying up into the ceiling with a sickening crack. Rolling to her feet faster than thought, Seras bared her teeth in a snarl and caught the falling body by the face in a move her Master used on her during a 'training session' and swung her into the floor. She should have learned from what she'd done, because the otherpire had bitten her as well. "Stupid bitch, if you'd controlled your bloody appetite and just behaved for the inspection you could've lived longer." Kicking the female in the chest a second time, she grinned viciously as she felt bone shattering. Her blue eyes burned hellfire red and she stalked closer to her helpless prey with a leer, "Something about you just rubs me the wrong way… I think I'll return the favor." Raking her claws up the woman's legs from ankle to thigh, she giggled.

The sound of screams filled her ears, like music, and she sniffed her blood soaked claws before crinkling her nose, "Your blood smells terrible." Kicking her again in retaliation for this fact, Seras rolled the flailing creature onto her stomach and wrenched her right arm back, dislocating it easily. The supposedly tamed vampire fainted and Seras frowned. "That's no fun…"

"Police Girl." Her Master's voice crooned from the doorway, "playing with your food?"

"No Master." Seras sing-songed in response, repeating her move from last night by kicking the woman onto her back and sending her boot through the other's rib cage to crush her heart, "I'm done with her."

His chuckles resonated in her very bones and warm gloved hands slid over her shoulders to pin her against his chest, "Police Girl, I love to see you kill." Nuzzling her neck affectionately, her Master slid one hand down to cup her breast and she found she didn't really mind. It felt kind of good.

"Master, my Master." Seras purred, leaning back into his solidness.

"We're done here, Police Girl, we'll pick up your coffin on our way out and take the van to the air port. Sir Integra has arranged for a private jet back to Hellsing."

Seras shuddered, "I don't like the coffin, master… cramped spaces bother me." She admitted, looking away, embarrassed.

Alucard sighed, and pulled her tighter to himself, "We'll work on that later, Police Girl. As a vampire, you need to sleep in a coffin, your little 'four poster coffin' won't always be available. This once I will allow you to fly with me because you have pleased me with your darkness."

"Thank you, Master."

The trip seemed to pass in seconds, and they were settled into seats across from each other. Seras stared out the window, watching the scenery from this new angle with fascination. She felt vaguely ill from being in the air like this, but pushed the feeling away to focus on the night scene beneath her.

The instant they crossed over the ocean her energy levels dropped to nothing and she shuddered, collapsing in a boneless heap in her cushy seat.

Her Sire chuckled and stood up, scooping her limp form into his arms to settle her across his lap and prop his feet up on her chair. "I warned you, Police Girl, such travel is not meant for one so young." She couldn't find it in herself to respond, though she managed a purr as he began petting her hair.

She drifted like that for a while before the pull of the ocean sucked her into darkness and she knew no more, asleep in her Sire's lap.


	16. Criss Cross Applesauce

The Seldom Seen

_**AN:**_As a reader suggested 'a full-blown chapter story'... I would, but I never finish them. XD So until I somehow manage to write an entire story up to have all the parts done and no excuse not to post it, y'all are stuck with one shots and connected-shots. :P

Though I will be adding more connected snippets. Because they're fun to reference older chapters.

Happy Thursday! XD And Turkey Slaughter Day. Yum yum turkey.

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_16: Criss Cross Applesauce_

Seras shifted uneasily in her sleep, hand clasping at nothing and a frown tugging her pretty lips. Whining low in her throat, she flipped over and kicked her blankets to the foot of her coffin-bed.

Glowing red eyes appeared in the darkness of her four-poster-coffin and white gloved hands slid out of the shadows to tug the blanket up and over her restless form. A hand gently petted her hair before withdrawing and leaving her to her memory-dreams.

_ It was November 5th, 1990, and Seras' orphanage was on a trip to the local museum. Most of the kids thought it was boring, but Seras considered it rather fascinating. She, of course, snuck off from the others to explore the dinosaur exhibit instead. The almost-ten year old stared up at the models wide eyed, making little noises of glee as she caught sight of the sharp teeth and claws. Feminine laughter answered hers from above and Seras glanced up curiously only to gasp in awe at the sight of the white clad ravenette perched on the T-Rex's head. "Oh wow, how did you get up there?"_

"_I'll come down." The girl answered, and she slid down the curved spine and did a hand spring off the tip of the tail to land with a flourish of her long coat a few feet from Seras, a rather mad grin on her pale face. "That was amazing!" The blonde orphan squealed, clapping her hands._

"_I try." The girl answered, red eyes gleaming with smug pleasure. _

"_Say, what's your name? Mine's Seras. Can we be friends?" Seras chirped, feeling a strange connection to the other – who could be no older than thirteen surely? – despite never seeing her before._

"_Forgotten already have we?" She replied mysteriously before flashing another of those too-wide grins, "You can call me Ally, Seras."_

_Seras blinked and cocked her head to one side curiously before shrugging it off, "Hey, Ally, how did you get up there? It looked fun." A mischievous grin twitched the blonde's lips as she stared up at the brontosaurus model._

"_I climbed of course. It was easy."_

_Just as Ally set foot beyond the velvet rope to clamber up the enormous herbivore's back, a museum attendant came running over, yelling; "Hey! You rotten kids! Get back with the group and **stay off the exhibits**!" The adult grabbed Seras' upper arm harshly and she winced. Ally turned in a flash with a rather fearsome expression on her face, "Get your paws off her!" The force of her snarl startled the man into letting go of the blonde who scampered quickly behind her white clad savior, making a rude face at him in the process.. "Just get going." Hr growled gruffly, pointing towards the painting hall._

_Seras grabbed Ally's gloved left hand and tugged her off in that direction. "Let's go look at the other stuff, m'kay?" The taller girl shrugged and allowed herself to be led away._

"_Hey… Seras… you know what would be really fun?" Ally whispered into her ear, breath oddly cold and sending shivers down the younger girl's spine. "What, Ally?"_

_The two girls ran from the hallway minutes later, giggling like fiends. They'd tilted every painting they could reach since there were no adults in sight to stop their shenanigans. "I can't wait to see the looks on their faces!" Seras laughed, doubled over to catch her breath while Ally wasn't even breathing hard, not even a single hair out of place._

"_There you are, Seras! Where have you been?" A haggard voice called as one of the orphanage workers caught sight of the blonde's tell-tale hairstyle. The blonde sobered instantly and stared solemnly at the nun, straightening up and folding her hands behind her back, "I had to use the loo and I got lost." She answered, lying with a straight face._

_Sister Marguerite glared at her suspiciously, then turned her gaze to the blonde's companion and flinched, "Seras, who's your new friend?" She asked with a slightly shaky voice. Seras quirked a brow, and turned to look at Ally, "Oh, this is Ally, I met her on the way back." Ally grinned and the nun took a half step back, crossing herself. "Girl, where are your parents? You shouldn't be wandering alone." The Sister scolded the unsettling child, and Seras frowned. "She wasn't alone, she was with me!"_

_Marguerite jerked her chin to stare at Seras. That was the most emotion she'd heard from the girl in the half year she'd spent with them. Pursing her lips and flicking her gaze back to Ally, the nun sighed, "Well come along then, the group is waiting. I suppose there's no harm in adding one more to our number until it's time to leave." She shot the ravenette a look that clearly said 'I'll be keeping my eye on you' and bustled off down the hallway towards the sound of many children gathered together. Seras glanced at Ally with a hopeful look on her face and the older girl sighed and nodded._

_The pair trailed behind the Sister, holding hands once more and whispering conspiratorially together. Some of the other children stared at them, and still others edged away deeper into the group, but the girls ignored them._

"_Ally, your gloves are really neat! I wish I had a pair like them."_

"_Do you now?" Another of those too-wide grins, and she changed the subject, "Hey, Seras, what do you want to be when you grow up?"_

"_A police officer, like my dad." The blonde replied without hesitation, a steely determined look in her sky blue eyes._

"_It'll take a lot of work." Ally commented, and Seras turned on her with a fierce expression of her own. "I don't care! I want to be a cop like my dad, and protect the weak from bullies!"_

"_Glorious…" Ally breathed with a strange light in her ruby eyes, "I'm sure you'll achieve your dream, Seras." The serious conversation diverted to simple things, like what their favorite animals were, and the strange… almost tension between them relaxed back into nothingness._

"_Ally," Seras started, "I love your hair, it's so long. Didn't it take forever to grow?" She itched to run her fingers through it, she always loved long hair. But her Mother had adored her short hair… so she kept it like that in honor of her. "Mm, a few years I guess." Ally replied with a shrug. "Can I braid your hair?" Seras asked, a gleam in her eyes. One of those strange looks passed over Ally's face before she shrugged a second time and laughed softly, "Sure, Seras."_

_The almost-ten year old (she'd be turning ten in nine days) beamed and shifted to walk behind her new friend, carefully grabbing up handfuls of hair to section it out evenly. Humming quietly as she worked, recalling how her Mother always did this when brushing her own short locks, Seras worked really hard on keeping the braid even and not tugging too hard. At last, she reached the end… and realized she had nothing to tie it off with. Pursing her lips, Seras reached up and yanked out her own hair band to tie Ally's hair style off to keep it that way._

_Beaming at how pretty the braid looked, Seras' hair floofed out rather ridiculously and sprawled across her shoulders and even into her face. Ally turned with a soft look on her face and gently pushed a stray strand of hair behind Seras' ear._

"_Come on children! Time for lunch! Everyone grab a seat." The Sisters called as the group filed into a picnic table laden area on the museum's back porch. Ally and Seras drifted over to the table farthest from the group and sat down together. Ally sat with her legs crossed and her feet touching her knees, and Seras nearly fell off the bench trying to copy her. Sister Marguerite gave the pair a dirty look as she placed a tray of food in front of Seras, "I'm not hungry." Ally commented and the nun shivered from hearing her voice before bustling off without comment. Seras poked at her applesauce, and then her peanut butter sandwich with a scrunched up face. They'd at least given her a milk to choke that dry sandwich down. Deciding to start with the applesauce, Seras wobbled again and dripped some of it on her pants. "Oops…" Laughing, she flicked the sugary goo to the floor, "Hey Ally, criss cross applesauce." Ally shook her head and laughed with her._

_Just as Seras finished her bland sandwich and chugged the last of her milk, a '**boom**' sounded. "Oh! The fireworks!" Swiveling in her seat, the blonde orphan stared up at the sky to watch the play of lights in the heavens. Seras 'ooh'd and 'ahh'd. and beamed up at the pretty explosions of color and sparkles._

_Halfway through the show, a tall skinny figure came bustling out of nowhere and loomed over their table with a glint of light playing off a monocle over the figure's left eye. "I've been looking everywhere for you. You know you're not allowed to wander off." The stern male voice jarred Seras out of her enthrallment and she turned to look at Ally and the man with a pout. "You have to leave already? But the fireworks aren't done yet…"_

"_That's right, the fireworks aren't done yet, and I've made a new _friend_. Don't you want me to have friends?" Ally cooed, reaching out to tug Seras closer along the bench._

_The adult stiffened and Seras could swear she saw him glaring at Ally, but she must be mistaken, the light from the fireworks was flickery and made weird shadows. "After they finish, we leave." He uttered with a steely determination. Ally sighed in Seras' ear and rested her chin on the younger girl's shoulder to watch the fireworks with her at a more intimate closeness. "Fine W-…"_

Seras jerked awake, and stared into the darkness of her coffin-bed wide eyed. "Could it be? But surely they'd have said something..!"

She remembered Ally, the scattered meetings with the girl were some of most treasured moments. Those red eyes… looked so familiar. "It's impossible, right?" Clenching her hands in her blanket covered lap, the blonde frowned. "I have to ask Walter, surely he'd know."

Sleep tugged at her mind and she nearly collapsed back into the mattress, suddenly _so tired_. "I'll… ask… la~ater." She yawned mid word and her eyelids fluttered shut.

Red eyes peered out of the lid of her four-poster-coffin and looked down at her with an odd expression in their glowing depths before they vanished.

'_Ask Master later…'_ The thought followed her into her dreamless sleep, and she rolled her head across the pillow in a boneless nod.


	17. Every Do-…Cat Has Its Day (p1)

The Seldom Seen

_**AN:** _Guess what? :D I was actually going to make you guys wait a bit longer for a certain someone to pop online... But I decided that was boring. Pff.  
Another three parter! *ominous music plays*  
I have all three parts written already. Aren't you guys **excited**? *crack-a-THOOM!*

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_17: Every Do-…Cat Has Its Day (p1)_

Seras flopped back on her bed, staring at the ceiling with a blank look on her face. No mission tonight, and Master was off doing … something, she wasn't quite sure. Walter had his duties, and Sir Integra – while nice in her own way – wasn't really the sort to just 'hang out' with. Not to mention the Wild Geese are a bunch of pervs! Therefore the fledgling was bored. Really bored. The girl sighed and allowed her mind to wander aimlessly… blood, death, the terror of Master feeling 'playful', more blood… Ugh, her mind was really working against her here. But then, a thought occurred to her.

She recalled, rather fondly despite the circumstances around it, her time as a kitten. Being a cat was pretty awesome, their minds worked in a different way, allowing her to get a new perspective on things, and they were more easily amused by shiny things. Maybe she could try to do that herself?

Closing her eyes and taking deep unnecessary breaths, Seras drifted into her own mind, seeking the dark well of her powers; a place she tended to avoid to keep hold of her precious humanity. Tentatively she sent a question to the _other_ self lurking in the shadow, asking it how to transform herself the way her Master did. The _other_ replied through sensations and vague images that she didn't have the blood or the power to do it the same as her Sire, but she'd inherited enough of his darkness to change her shape – though there was some vague sense of warning that it would hurt.

Frowning a bit at the answer, she wasn't especially fond of pain, she grit her teeth and opened herself to the _other_ regardless. She really wanted to see if she could do this herself, damnit. And… maybe Master would be proud? Brushing the thought away, Seras concentrated on calling her own darkness up; a rather difficult task, but not impossible.

As though a bubble popped, her powers swelled outward and turned back on her to consume her body in waves of fire. She would have screamed had her throat not locked up with the agony. Bones made sickening crunching noises, grinding against each other and her innards made disturbing _squelching_ noises as they shifted around. Her skin tingled as fur sprouted in a rippling wave, muscles burned and cried out as they stretched into new shapes and lengths. God it **hurt**! Coming damned close to passing out from the overload on her senses, the final things to change were her skull shape and her spine elongating and broadening to support her new form. _Ugh…_

Her vision seemed to bubble at the end, and flattened, colors dimming as her eyes shifted position in her head. Groaning, the sound echoed low in her chest, and her ears swiveled to catch the echoes of it bouncing off her walls.

_'I never want to do that again!'_ She thought, shivering and curling her tail up between her legs from the mere thought of having her entire body break down and reassemble a second time. But… huh… the room looked the same. When she was a kitten, everything looked huge. And she could think clearly, unaffected by her feline side, but maybe that was because she was _trying_ to think like her original self? Ugh, complicated.

Lifting a paw, she canted her head to the right and compared it to her pillow, blinking in shock at the realization that she wasn't just a cat, she was a _big_ cat, like a lion or something. Cool.

The _other_ whispered something along the lines of needing to retain her approximate size for it to work, so a house cat would be impossible until she gained enough power to defy the laws of physics as blatantly as her Master. The thought amused her, and she made a laughing noise that sounded a bit like a rumbling cough.

Rolling to her feet easily, Seras hopped off the bed in one fluid motion, padding over to her mirror to inspect her new body curiously. _Oh…_ She couldn't see the exact colors the same way she was accustomed, but her reflection told of a light colored coat with dark stripes lining her back melting into rosettes down her hind legs, her fore legs had only a hint of the stripes in the form of subtle mottling, matching the pattern on her face. It looked like she had a white belly, too. Grinning at herself, she rather admired the dagger teeth lining her muzzle, her incisors looked longer than Master's!

Idly she wondered what happened to her clothes before shrugging it off and prowling out of her room in search of entertainment. As she stalked the underground halls, her mind settled and she felt a distinctly feline edge to it now, the predator in her pointing out all the niches she could use to hide in and wait for prey to come along. But not many people dared enter the lower levels unless performing their duties, so that was a wash.

'_Hmmm…'_

Seras padded up the stairs and stared at the door leading to the main floors of Hellsing Manor. Not having hands would make this tricky. Sitting on her haunches and tapping her tail restlessly, the golden tigress (with unusual additional patterning) experimentally slid her paw along the edge of the sliding glass door to try and tug it open that way. Fortunately it worked.

Purring smugly she slid through and prowled down the painting lined hallway towards the back stairs, inclined to visit Sir Integra and amuse herself with the woman's reaction. However, mid way through, her ears pricked up at the sound of approaching footsteps and she shifted closer to the wall. One of the newer recruits, a rather nervous and trigger happy brunette appeared, stared blankly at the hulking great cat loose in the halls, came close to pissing himself, and screamed like a little girl while spraying bullets at the monster. _Idiot!_

Roaring in pain as blessed silver rends her pelt, Seras' _other_ self screams at her to melt into the walls. Not questioning if she could or not, she turned tail and bolted away from the hysterical man and the still flying ammunition, leaving red spatters all over Sir Integra's nice carpets. Wheezing, and still dripping blood, Seras collapsed behind an ornate couch in one of the deeper rooms, licking gingerly at the wounds on her legs. _'Holy fuck that smarts!'_

Voicing another low groan, Seras shuddered and laid her head wearily down on her paws, too weak to move from the still slowly spreading pool of crimson. _**'Master?'**_She called. mental voice trembling.

No answer came immediately.

Just about ready to try pestering her Sire again, she tensed as she heard approaching footsteps, wary of more trigger happy soldiers. Instead, she smelled something familiar that tugged at her pain hazed mind until she recognized it as Walter. Thank god. Peering around the sofa cautiously, Seras observed Walter, her new feline eyes catching the shimmer of razor wire around the butler. Furling her ears back, she whined lowly, coming close to coughing up blood for her effort.

Fortunately for the transformed fledgling, Walter is smarter, more experienced, and calmer than the moron who tried to kill her. The butler gasped quietly at the sight of the bleeding wild cat, taking note of the sunshine gold color of the coat and the familiar blue eyes, "Miss Victoria?" At her nod his lips tightened and he glanced over her wounds critically, "Can you change back, Miss Victoria?" Shuddering, she quickly shook her head. Hell no, she wasn't going to try that when injured! "As I thought…" The butler murmured under his breath, "I will return shortly, please do not move, Miss Victoria." Heh, no problem, Walter.

The Angel of Death returned minutes later with a bucket and her Master in tow. The pail was the sole focus of her gaze; she could smell something so _delicious_ inside. Licking her chops, feral hungry eyes followed Walter's progress across the room, muscles tensing as though to get up and pounce on her meal. A large hand settled on the back of her neck and she jumped in surprise at her Sire's presence behind her. The hand squeezed warningly and she whined, ears furled flat to her skull. The bucket was set down carefully and nudged closer to her massive head cautiously by the butler before he took a step back, performed one of his half bows, and swiftly exited the room.

The weight lifted, and she lunged forward to shove her muzzle into the blood filled container, lapping greedily at the crimson substance. It didn't take long for her to empty it, and she whined in longing for more, realizing after a moment that while her wounds healed the spilled blood around her had vanished as well. There was a clinking sound as she got to her feet, and she looked down to see a spattering of flattened bullets hit the floor.

"I'm impressed you managed this yourself, so early in your development." Her Master commented off handedly, the praise sending chills down her spine in delight. Purring and head butting his hand affectionately, Seras twined herself about his legs, nearly shoving him off balance with the sheer bulk of her new form. He chuckled and rested a hand on her head, scratching obligingly behind her ear when she leaned into the touch, "What a lovely pelt you have, Seras. It suits you." He crooned, running his fingers through the silky fur on her forehead.

Her Master chuckled again, "You know," he began conversationally, "I always fancied owning a pet tiger." With a snap of his fingers, shadows oozed around her neck to form a collar and leash. He tugged experimentally on the lead and she growled, taking a grudging step forward. Cats liked their freedom.

His amusement rolled off him in waves as the red clad man led his new pet out of the room and towards her initial destination of Sir Integra's study. The domestic staff took one look at the pair and fled to safer hallways.

"Why is Seras a tiger?" Integra demanded, staring hard at her Servant and his own transformed servant. Seras shook her head and prowled forward casually, the shadow leash snapping, but the collar remained about her neck in a glistening ring. The wild cat made her way around Sir Integra's desk and proceeded to roll on her back with her paws splayed to expose her tummy enticingly, her tail tapping slowly. The Hellsing heiress turned her head to stare at the displaying feline, then smirked and used her foot to rub the tiger's belly instead of her hand.

Seras gave another rumbling cough like chuckle as she lightly captured the woman's ankle between her massive paws.

"She did it herself, my Master." Alucard answered with a smug lift to his chin.

"Regardless, I'm not sure if I should be worried she's a saber tooth." Integra continued, scrutinizing the lovely figure the tigress made, "Can she turn back?"

"Possibly." He snapped his fingers and Seras looked up at him, before releasing her hold of Integra and rolling to her feet to plod over to her Sire and sit at his, her head reaching his waist. "If there are no missions, my Master, then we will retire." The leash reformed and – at Integra's shaking head to the negative that there were no missions – he melted through the floor, taking Seras with him this time. When they rematerialized in the lowest level containing Alucard's rooms, he strolled over to the far wall and draped himself across the settee, patting his leg in summons. Deciding to accept the invitation, Seras stalked forward and braced her front paws on the cushion before hopping up and flopping down on top of her Master in one fluid motion. Sprawling out across his entire length with a smug purr, Seras rested her chin on his chest to stare him right in the face with wild blue eyes. He chuckled and began to pet her, scratching behind her whiskers and tugging playfully on her ears. "You feel so warm like this, Seras." He murmured approvingly, tapping her blood teeth consideringly, "I wonder If you can suck blood through those?" He laughed at the thought.

Seras rumbled her answering amusement and tapped her tail against his ankle. Being a tiger was awesome. Allowing her consciousness to drift into the recesses of her mind, the great cat began to groom her Sire's cheek with a purr. Marking her territory in a much more refined manner than males who pissed on everything in sight.

Her Master was _hers_ after all.

His delighted laughter echoed through his massive chambers as he petted her and she accepted his easy worship. Of course he was pleased with her, she's awesome.


	18. Curiosity Killed The Cat(p2)

The Seldom Seen

_**AN: **I'm in a generous mood. ;D  
Your wish is granted for part two, Lila Nightengale!_

Part two! Not as much to say on this one other than... please don't hate me. :)) If you kill me, I can't update. *shifty eyes*

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_18: Curiosity Killed The Cat (p2)_

Seras rolled off her still dozing Master's chest and padded up to his door. _Hrm… _Obeying instinct, she closed her eyes and stepped through the solid barrier, appearing out in the hallway. A vicious glow appeared in her wild eyes and she rumbled wicked laugher-growls as she prowled down the hallway with a hunter's grace. Stalking up the stairs, she scented the air and crinkled her whiskers. Not close enough.

Eyeing the ceiling consideringly, Seras took a running start and leaped up onto the wall, sinking her sharp claws in for the briefest second as she used the leverage to jump for the other wall and flipping in mid air to push off with her hind paws to spring herself up to – and through – the solid stone to appear on her level of the sub basements. Smugness positively _oozed_ off the tigress as she repeated the tactics to pop up in the main storage basement. _Purrfect._

Lifting her great head to sniff the air again, her toes curled and her claws scraped the cement beneath as she caught what she was looking for. Turning to her right, Seras leaped nimbly atop an ammunitions crate and used it as a staircase to fling herself atop another full of gun parts, and one last one that didn't smell especially like anything to poke her head up through the ceiling to the main floor. One of the lower foyers apparently, and not a soul in sight. Lifting herself the rest of the way through the floor, Seras stretched and licked her chops.

Her prey was located within the twisting hallways of Hellsing manor. _Purrfect._

Melting through the walls, Seras appeared in front of the brunette from yesterday with a savage roar that echoed down the hallway like a claxon calling men to arms. He screamed and opened fire, just like she knew he would.

Melting partially through the floor, Seras ran at him and lunged, taking his gun between her jaws and crushing it like tinfoil. He screamed, pissed himself, and ran just like she'd planned. Following the trail of urine, Seras took note of his destination and jumped through the walls to appear in front of him with another roar. She heard the trampling sound of approaching footsteps, but ignored it for the moment, intent on _playing_ with her prey. The gibbering soldier stumbled over his own feet as he attempted an about face to get away from the feral creature out for his blood. He sobbed with each breath and his pants were soaked. Seras growled with sadistic pleasure and pounced, using her vampiric strength to add power to her hind legs. Sailing high in the air she came down on the spineless man hard, her dinner plate sized paws knocking him to the floor by his shoulders. Still, she was careful not to cripple him.

Parting her jaws she breathed hotly on the back of the sobbing man's neck, and growled into his mind; _**'Maybe next time you'll think before you shoot, hm?'**_ Lightly pressing her teeth to flesh to emphasize her point, Seras looked up as the first soldier spilled into the hall.

Turning, and shredding the prostrate recruit's pants with a few shallow wounds on his calves, Seras dove through the floor just in time to avoid a sniper shot for her head.

_Well, that was fun._

Deciding to shadow Sir Integra for something to do, Seras prowled the halls through wall walking, and phased into the stern woman's study through one of the many towering bookshelves. Avoiding the lingering sunlight filtering through the windows, she yawned. The great cat flopped herself down in front of the desk and rested her chin on her paws with an expectant air of feline amusement.

_Three… Two… One…_

Right on cue, the platinum blonde stormed into her study, cigar pluming like a locomotive with one of the mid level soldiers trailing after her, reporting the 'phantom tiger incident'. Seras chortled to herself softly and tapped her tail on the polished marble floor in amusement.

"You and your men knew what you were signing up for, and what you'd be working with Corporal." Integra snapped, sounding aggrieved, "So tell the men to stop acting like frightened children. Neither of my vampires are allowed to kill Hellsing staff, and from what I heard, he shot her first." Clouds of smoke floated around the aristocratic woman's face, giving her a fearsome appearance. "But Sir…" "No, Corporal. The matter is closed. If there are any more incidents I will deal with it personally. You are dismissed." "Bu-…I… Yes, Sir." Saluting stiffly, the uniformed man beat a hasty retreat as his wandering gaze caught sight of Seras, who yawned obligingly to expose her sharp, sharp teeth.

"Must you stir up the men, Seras?" Integra growled as she stalked towards her desk. The tigress' only reply was a smug air and tapping of her striped tail on the cool floor. "_Vampires_!" Integra groused, flinging her hair back over her shoulder with a flick of her wrist. "You're lucky I don't turn you into a throw rug." The Hellsing Heiress muttered before booting up her laptop to start work on the night's reports.

Seras purred smugly as she lazed on the floor, waiting her Master's inevitable arrival.

As the full moon rose from the horizon, Seras' ears perked up and she stared intently at a spot on the floor in front of Sir Integra's desk. As expected, the floor rippled and Alucard rose dramatically into existence with his trademark manic grin. "Good evening my Master, do you have need of me this night?"

"Yes, actually, there's been a ghoul outbreak on British soil near the border of Scotland. Go and kill the vampire, Servant, and take the Police Girl with you." Tossing a manila folder at the red clad menace, Sir Integra resumed typing away at her laptop, surrounded by a fragrant cloud of cigar smoke. Alucard glanced at the file, chuckled, placed it on the edge of Sir Integra's desk and snapped his fingers. A shadow leash grew from the ever present collar and floated into his hand. "Come along, Seras." He ordered with a shark grin and a tug of the leash.

Seras made a great show of yawning and stretching before lumbering to her feet and taking three steps to reach her Sire. The pair vanished into darkness as a shadow portal opened beneath them and swallowed them whole. Integra scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Bloody show off."

The vampires reappeared in front of a broken down church and for a moment Seras felt a sense of déjà vu. _'There better not be a vampire priest here, too.' _The tigress grumbled with an angry flick of her tail. Her Master chuckled and tugged her along to inspect the village for any survivors. They found none.

Prowling restlessly in circles around her Master, Seras' ears perked and she darted off to the right, the shadow leash stretching to ridiculous lengths and even passing through trees and houses to stay connected between the two undead.

'_**Seras… NO!'**_

The warning came too late as she pounced upon the turned back of Alexander Anderson. The smell of his pious blood and holy magic burned her nose and she realized with dread that she'd made a terrible mistake listening to her feline side in this matter.

The blonde scarred man grunted and swatted her away with his inhuman strength, turning with his own manic grin baring his perfectly white and straight teeth. "Ahh… and lookit what we have here, _a bloody heathen_."


	19. But Satisfaction Brought It Back (p3)

The Seldom Seen

_**AN: **And we hit my random number of three reviews in the same day for early update of last part, thanks to VanquishLithium._

Part three, yay! I seem to have a theme going with my multi parters of first part being the longest, then middle, with the end being shorter. Oops? Heh.  
But I hope y'all like this mini installment nonetheless.

I have the next pre-Hellsing chapter ready and waiting already. Muahahaha. And, really, feel free to offer up ideas. Ideas feed my muse just as much as reviews do!

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_19: But Satisfaction Brought It Back (p3)_

Seras' mind _screamed_ at her to run, but she couldn't take her eyes from the mad priest and his blood soaked bayonets. Shuddering, she began inching backwards from the holy man and hit a wall. Her eyes widened as she realized she couldn't phase through it and she leaped to the left with a yowl as a flurry of the blessed blades shot towards her. _**'MASTER!'**_

Her throat burned with phantom pain from her first meeting with the paladin. And he _hadn't_ been trying to kill her then! Growling nervously and baring her fangs, Seras was forced to do a backflip as more swords embedded themselves in the earth where she was standing mere seconds previous.

Another volley of Angel Dusts' glorified cleavers shot at the still airborne tigress and impaled her legs. Roaring in pain, she collapsed in a pool of her own blood, struggling to get her feet back under her.

"Anderson." Her Master's voice called and she could have sobbed with relief. Thank god! Or whatever entity listened to the damned.

"Ah should have known et was you." The priest snarled as he turned from his disabled target to face the looming vampire at his back.

"Yes. Me. What are you doing here, Paladin? You have no jurisdiction on British soil."

"Pffah! I go where I am needed, and these bloody ghouls originated on Scottish ground. Good and honest Catholics died here, ye monstrous beast, and Ah am a blade to do God's holy will."

Seras winced and jerked her head back as the blessings on the blade burned her mouth. Grimacing and baring her fangs behind the paladin's back, she braced herself for the searing pressure of holy magic trying to purify her unclean flesh as she yanked the blade out of her right foreleg. This hurt a lot more without hands, damnit!

"The Almighty set me t' purify the unclean, an' Ah aim t' do just that." Anderson continued and began a prayer as he was want to do when facing her Master in battle, more bayonets sliding down from his sleeves into his hands like holy claws. He charged Alucard with a roaring 'Amen' and leapt into the air, flinging his handful of blades at the monster before him. Alucard laughed and shot the blades out of the air with the Cassul, Jackal at his side ready and waiting for the right moment. "That's what I love about you, Anderson, you're so tenacious and unyielding."

As though to emphasize his point, Alucard's lips twisted cruelly as he swung the Jackal up in the scant moments between the paladin's hands being empty of more weapons to shoot his arms off at the shoulder with a resounding explosion of noise and blood. The Paladin howled in outage and landed in a crouch on the blood soaked earth with a snarl. Kicking one of his blades up, he grabbed the handle between his teeth and charged Alucard in a blind rage, the Regenerist's shoulders began to bubble disgustingly as his limbs sought to regrow.

Seras growled lowly as she pulled the final blade from her hind leg, prowling restlessly about the edges of the battlefield as she observed the fight. Her feline side purred to see her Master playing with his food before the kill, and Seras blinked at the thought. Well, that was one way to look at it, really…

Alucard laughed as he dodged the charges, his coat fluttering like a matador's cape, and Anderson the enraged bull.

"You have to grow stronger still, Paladin, if you hope to defeat me." Her Master stated, and with the cruelest look she'd seen on his face in months, he blew the priest's legs off at the knee. _Ouch, that had to hurt._

The now immobilized Judas Priest swore blackly and swung his head to launch his last blade at Alucard. Surprisingly, it hit, but he simply smiled and pulled it out of his shoulder with a flick of his wrist and planted the smoking blade in the dirt before the disabled man and turned to walk off to collect Seras and leave.

"Until next time, Judas Priest."

Seras noticed then that the leash was still attached to her collar, and grumbled inwardly about the indignity of it all as she sat at her Master's feet to be swallowed by the portal.

She felt a little disappointed… she'd wanted to sharpen her claws on some ghouls and revel in the hunt.

Her Master chuckled lowly and patted her head in a condescending manner. "Now, now, Seras, there's always next time."

With some shock she realized that she was human again – or as human as she could be when she was technically undead – and still wore that infernal shadow collar. "Master..!"

His answering smirk sent shivers down her spine, and he sat himself down on his throne chair – apparently they'd reached his rooms, she hadn't noticed – and tugged the leash to yank the blonde girl into his lap. "Come here, Police Girl, it's time to further your education in what it means to be a vampire." He crooned as she stumbled and toppled off balance to land awkwardly across his legs.

"Yes Master…" She grumbled, grasping his shoulder to pull herself up in a more comfortable position. Blowing her bangs from her eyes, the fledgling shivered again, in pleasure this time, as a hand clapped possessively over her hip and tugged her closer to his chest.

One of his many books floated off the shelves to land in his open hand and he held it so that they could both see as he read aloud.

"3 May. Bistritz.-Left Munich at…"


	20. If You're Happy And You Know It

_The Seldom Seen_

**_AN:_**This is the last currently planned pre-Hellsing chapter. If I ever finish it, this will actually be the jumping off point for a mini fic. Here's hoping I do. XD_  
_

At the moment I'm honestly **out of ideas**, though I have a tiny scene in my head from an amusing comment of 'comparing brains'. So feed me ideas! :P It'll make me write faster.

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_20: When You're Happy And You Know It. Clap Your Hands_

They hadn't gotten far in Dracula before Seras fell asleep on her Master's lap. He gave her a mildly offended look and chuckled as he scooped the girl up in his arms and walked through the walls to her room – his, actually, from when Integra was still a child and needed him closer for protection from the various assassination attempts - and settled her down on the bed. On a whim, his form shrank and his clothes bleached of color to assume his second most favored identity. "Seras…." She cooed, petting the blonde's hair, "Do you remember my grooming of you? Such a fascinating creature beneath that girlish exterior."

Their first meeting had been coincidental, he had smelled something _interesting_ and broken free of Integra to investigate, assured of his young Master's safety as she was with the butler. He recalled their 'walkies' with amusement. They had halted shortly after the incident at the orphanage, and he had been forced to seek other methods of amusement. When his _interesting _child had been sent away, he was displeased, and decided to search for her. Her mind had such _fascinating_ facets to it, and when one was five hundred years old, not much left of the world could be considered such anymore. So of course he wanted to keep track of his newest play thing.

She was quite pleased with Seras when the girl hadn't shrunk away from her like the other humans in her group – another reason she was drawn to keep tabs on the girl who felt so comfortable with creatures of darkness, even unknowing. Their mischief brought a wicked smirk to the teenager's lips as she lay beside Seras and pillowed her cheek into the blonde's breasts as though to listen to a heart that no longer beat. "My little Police Girl, you're so very corruptible."

Seras made an unintelligible noise and her slender arms came up to wrap around the ravenette's shoulders, holding her tightly with a pleased lift to her lips. Ally chuckled softly and rested more of her weight on the Police Girl – who was taller than her, which served to further amuse the near-immortal creature.

"Will you get the courage to ask me about these dream-memories soon, I wonder?" She murmured, not truly expecting an answer

_Seras Victoria stared coldly at the orphanage building and her lip curled. The ten year old had her backpack stuffed with snack food and a few water bottles, a blanket, her spare changes of clothes, and the last picture she owned of her parents before their death. She was running away from this hellish place before she went mad._

_The blonde absolutely refused to go back to the mad house they sent her to right from her hospital bed four years ago. Cringing at the thought, Seras turned and began walking south towards the park and the nearby bus depot. She had to get moving before they noticed she was missing._

_About an hour of walking later, the blonde reached the park, shoulders drooping and feet tired. Rummaging in her pocket to check her emergency money was still there, she started to turn towards the bus station across the street when a voice called her name. A familiar one._

"_Seras!"_

_She pivoted on her heel and was blinded by the light of the setting sun as a body plowed into her and sent her tumbling to the grass below, and the pair rolled down the small hill, laughing. "Ally! What're you doing here?"_

"_I should be the one asking **you** that question, Seras." The older girl replied, sitting in the grass to the blonde's left. Seras' old and badly abused backpack unzipped at the side to spill out her collection of snack bags and a hint of one of her shirts. "…Are you running away?" The ravenette's eyes seemed to glow cherry red, but the blonde dismissed it as a trick of the light as she cursed and shoved the items back into her bag._

"_So what if I am?" She snapped defensively, tugging the zipper down with a grunt to redo the gaping hole and close it. "So you missed the last bus leaving town for the next two hours." Ally replied calmly. "So let's go hang out on the swings to kill some time."_

"_Oh… okay." Seras conceded, her built up agitation deflating at Ally's calm tone. Since her friend wasn't trying to change her mind, the blonde relaxed and joined the white clad teenager at the playground. Swings are awesome._

"_Sooo…" The older girl drawled, "What made you decide to leave?" She was swinging higher and higher until the swing set was rocking each time gravity let go and then grabbed the girl again to pull her back from her freefall into her seat._

_Seras stared at her feet, a stony look on her face as she pushed on the sand to just inch back and forth. Images flashed through her head painfully; the other girls ganging up on her with looks of hatred and swinging their pillowcases full of shoes at her to leave purple bruises along her ribs and arms. Being locked in the closet and unable to move. The adults turning a blind eye. The boys… Shuddering violently, Seras began to attack the air with her feet to push herself higher to escape her memories. "it doesn't matter. What matters is I'm not going back." That same steely conviction in her voice from the first time they met and she told Ally she'd become a police woman to make her dad proud colored her tone heavily._

_If she had glanced at Ally then, she would have seen the strangest expression on her face; calculating, angry, pleased, almost… perverse. The ravenette inhaled sharply and breathed a single word, the sound lost to the growing wind. _"Glorious."

"_Hey, Police Girl, want to see a trick?" Ally teased, and as soon as Seras turned her head to look, the young teen let go of the chains to fly from her seat and land in the tree ten feet off, hanging upside down and grinning like a loon._

_Seras boggled, "How… how did you **do** that, Ally?!" Her troubles temporarily forgotten, ten year old Seras Victoria's attention was drawn solely to the red eyed girl dangling from the tree branch with a cocky grin._

"_I'm amazing, that's how." Ally purred, and wiggled her gloved fingers enticingly. "If you jump, I'll catch you, Seras."_

_The blonde hesitated._

"_Don't you _trust_ me, Seras?" Something about the older girl's tone sent shivers down her spine and she frowned, fidgeting in her seat. Legs still pumping to keep up her momentum. "Of course I do, Ally."_

_The blonde wasn't even sure _why_ she trusted Ally, though. They'd only known each other for a month and their meetings were sporadic at best. But she did, she was drawn to the older girl, felt… safe? No, not quite, but that was the closest word she could name for what she felt around the girl._

_With that thought in mind, she squinched her eyes shut and allowed herself to fly free of the seat and towards the tree, Ally, and quite possibly the ground. At the last second her arms shot straight up and her wrists were grabbed by what felt like cold irons and the world tilted sickeningly as her momentum was used to swing the pair up and over the branch to sit on it properly. "Oooh…" Seras moaned, feeling sick, "Never do that again."_

_Ally laughed in her ear and brought her arms up around the blonde's shoulders to cradle the smaller body to hers, "But wasn't it fun, little Police Girl, to fly through the air and be caught?"_

_Seras reply was muffed into Ally's white coat, noncommittal. "Hey, Ally, why're you calling me Police Girl?"_

"_That's what you want to be when you grow up, isn't it?"_

"_Well yeah…"_

"_Then what's the problem?"_

_Furrowing her brows, the ten year old stared into those bright red eyes, looking for something… Unsure if she found it or not with all the things she saw in those strangely alluring orbs, she simply rests her cheek on the older girl's shoulder and sighs. "Nothing, I guess."_

"_Well, if you want to catch your bus, we should get down. I'll wait with you." Seras blinked in shock, and noticed then that the sun was completely gone. How long had she spent zoning out on her only friend? Feeling a little embarrassed, Seras squeaked when the girl showed off _again_ by dropping forward abruptly and holding onto the branch with her ivory pant clad legs to set the blonde down by a careful grip on her wrists. And then she showed off even _more_ by letting go and landing in a hand stand!_

"_Doesn't that hurt?" Seras couldn't help but ask as she scurried over to the swings to retrieve her backpack and swing the straps up over her shoulders._

"_Pfff, naw. I told you, I'm amazing." A too-wide grin showed nearly all the teeth in Ally's head as she grabbed Seras' hand and tugged her close. "C'mon, let's go."_

_Feeling rather cold, even though she was shielded from most of the wind by the taller ravenette, Seras shivered and decided that once they sat down she'd get her coat out of her bag and put it on. The pair crossed the street carefully and sat on the bench under the brightest light in the small depot. Seras wiggled into her rather worn and obviously hand-me-down coat and shoved a hand into her pants pocket to assure herself she still had her money. She did. _

_They received some odd looks from others waiting for their own buses, adults mostly, but no one approached to question them and Seras relaxed against her friend's side. Ten minutes passed. Fifteen. Twenty. At thirty minutes finally the right bus arrived for the last ride out of town until tomorrow morning._

_Seras got up and Ally followed behind her as she made her way to the bus and started plonking coins into the ticket machine next to the driver. When she had a full fare paid for, she turned and realized the other was still standing outside the bus. "Aren't you coming with me?" She asked, a little confused._

_The ravenette smiled, and opened her mouth…_

And then Seras woke with a cry of loss on her lips. Warm arms tightened possessively about her waist and she blinked, soothed by the gesture. Turning her head, she stared into the sleeping face of her Master. He was cuddling her like a child would a teddy bear.

Feeling on edge from her persistent dream-memories, the girl shuddered and burrowed closer to his subtle heat, taking comfort from his presence.

A strange little rhyme floated in her head as she lay there, trying to recapture the elusive beast known as sleep.

'_If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands. If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands. If you're happy and you know it, and you really want to show it, if you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.'_

If she didn't think it'd be too absurd, and possibly wake her Master, she would have clapped her hands like a child, as though trying to capture the moment forever and shove it in a jar.


	21. Noodle

The Seldom Seen

_**AN:**_Here's the second part of my New Years gift as promised! I hope y'all like it, but I warn you I'm a bit tired, so forgive me if this one seems a bit ... _off _today. If you follow my other story, I'll be uploading the next chapter in just a moment.  
Thanks for sticking with me during the long wait on this update. (heart) I can't promise when the next one will be, but suggestions help until inspiration strikes. :]

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_21: Noodle_

Seras Victoria couldn't move, couldn't even open her eyes, and it was a good thing she didn't need to breathe because even her lungs lacked the will to suck in the air necessary for audible speech. _Crap._

A weight shifted on the bed and her senses exploded with painful tingling as her Master's presence brushed across her over sensitized nerves. Unable to cringe at the uncomfortable sensation, or even purse her lips, the blonde fledgling lay helplessly atop her mattress; with her mind going a mile a minute.

"Ahh, my little Police Girl. What a mess you've gotten yourself into, hm?" His voice crooned into her ear, colored richly by malicious amusement. "Why, you're as limp as a noodle. I could tie ropes to you and use you as a marionette."

_Oh lord… __**'Mastter!'**_ She complained, a hint of pleading in her mental voice. His answer was to laugh. Oh dear, this didn't bode well for her at all.

Moments later she felt something slightly rough curl around one wrist, then the other, another two coiling around her upper arms, and encasing her thighs and ankles. Fuck.

'_**Master!'**_

"What can you do to stop me, Police Girl?" He mocked, and her body jerked upright to dangle awkwardly by her elbows held even to her shoulders. _**'…Can you at least open my eyes?'**_ She whined pitifully, resigned to be used as her Master's toy for the evening.

"I'll consider it." He replied wickedly, her body jumping awkwardly as he pulled the rope-strings to make her limp limbs move. Minutes – though it felt more like hours – passed like this with her Master chuckling at odd intervals, she assumed it was at the reactions of the house staff as he paraded her through the halls as his life sized puppet.

She heard a door creak and the familiar sting of Sir Integra's cigar smoke tickled her nostrils. Seconds passed in silence before she heard the woman sigh in aggravation, "What are you doing to her, Servant?"

Seras felt herself dance a jig, and wished she could complain or frown or do _anything_. "Isn't it obvious, my Master?" He crooned in response and Seras felt herself go flying through the air only to jerk to a halt by the ropes on her upper arms pulling taut. She flopped bonelessly back, and winced internally. That last stunt pulled something in her back, she was sure of it.

"I can see that. Why are you doing it?" Integra asked with forced calm.

"Because I can."

Seras could swear she heard the blonde woman growl! After a moment she felt his fingers on her face moving her eyelids up to give her an uncomfortably close view of her Master's mad grinning face.

"What is wrong with her?" Sir Integra asked after a moment, and Seras swiveled on her rope-strings to look at the Hellsing heiress.

"Oh, nothing serious." Her Sire hummed nonchalantly, manipulating Seras' limbs to spin in rather nauseatingly fast circles.

Integra's silence, and a brief blurry glimpse of her face showed her unimpressed stare at her vampire, waiting for him to elaborate.

"She needs blood." He continued obligingly, halting his fledgling's twirling to instead have her do an odd jig that involved her arms crossed over her chest and her legs flinging out in rapid succession. Urgh, she was starting to feel sick.

"Well then feed her already." Integra sounded frustrated, and the smell of smoke increased ten fold as she puffed away on her cigar.

"And spoil my fun, Master?" His voice overflowed with mock innocence, and Seras managed to roll her eyes at his theatrics.

"That is an order, Servant. Feed your fledgling her blood and stop this undignified behavior at once." The human snapped, slamming her fists on her desk.

Her Master grinned, and jerked her strings to send her flying into his grasp. He bowed, taking her with him as he vanished into the floor, "Yes, my Master, as you wish."

When they arrived back at the lower levels, he trussed her up to have her hanging upside down by the root-lid of her coffin-bed. If she were human, the blood rushing to her face might've made her pass out at this point.

'_**Master!'**_ She complained through their bond, sending out waves of discontent.

"Hush, fledgling. All in good time." He admonished, and began to search through her belongings before finding the laptop she'd bought last week. Well, 'bought' may be stretching the truth a little… The family was dead anyways, and no one would miss it as it had barely been used. She refused to feel guilty for it, damnit.

Darkness coagulated in her Sire's hand, forming a DVD case that she thought she recognized as a horror movie. He inserted the disk and set it to play, lounging indolently across her bed with the laptop facing them both.

Seras had a craving for her crazy straw now. Alucard's laughter mocked her in response to that urge, and she grumbled mentally only to be shushed for being too loud during the movie.

Blood, screams, and varying low to high grade levels of special effects bored into her brain for a solid two hours before it ended. _**'Now, Master?'**_

As nice as it was to 'spend time' with him… hanging upside down and unable to move really put a damper on things. The way he laughed at the grisly deaths didn't help either.

"Impatient little thing aren't you?" He smirked and a blood pack materialized, with her crazy straw sticking out of the top. He was indulgent enough to stick the straw in her mouth, and she found the strength to suck it down (up) greedily.

…She still couldn't move, but that was more because he trussed her so thoroughly rather than being too weak. "Masterrr…" God it was good to hear her own voice outside of her head.

Rather than respond he simply untied the ropes mooring her to the lid of the four poster coffin and flipped her right side up in his arms. He began to walk despite her protests and they vanished into the wall to appear in his chambers. He settled into his throne and draped her across his lap like some sort of trophy wife.

"A trophy wife, Police Girl?" His chuckle tickled across her ear in warm puffs of air, and she squirmed.

"I thought you were going to untie me…" She grumbled, looking away from his smug face, a bright flush lighting her cheeks.

He nipped her teasingly, and she knew he enjoyed the way she jumped like a skittish colt. "Sir Integra never said anything about that in her orders, fledgling. It's only undignified if someone sees it, and you, my dear, don't count."

The thought _'it's a good thing I'm not into bondage'_ crossed her mind, and she yelped in humiliation when he whispered "it's a pity" against the nape of her neck.

"Maaasterrrr..!"


	22. Pet The Kitty

The Seldom Seen

_**AN:**_I'm baaaack on this story for a sec. :D What Could Have Been will update as soon as I finish getting the words to flow right.  
Blame Lithi, she made this comment, and... Hee, you'll see. Spur of the moment chapter because I wanted this scene so bad, but it wouldn't come soon enough in WCHB. Woo! Gratuity!

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_22: Pet The Kitty_

Walter C. Dornez had seen many things in his life time, unspeakable horrors, indescribable evils, but this… this made him uncomfortable in a whole new way. The elderly butler's cheeks flushed and he coughed delicately into his fist as he stood in the doorway to Alucard's chambers. _'Oh my.'_

Seras Victoria, the innocent little blonde who had been taken in by Hellsing's trump card, was there, curled up like a cat in her Master's lap while his gloved hand ran through her hair over and over. In Alucard's other hand was his trademark glass of bloodwine, swirled indolently and sipped at negligently, with an entirely too smug smirk on his pale face. "Did you need something Walter?" That deep baritone voice of his slithered across the cavernous hall to the mortal's ears like honey soaked sin. Walter shivered minutely before stepping further into the vampire's dimly lit quarters with a carefully bland expression on his aged face. "Yes, Alucard, Sir Integra requested your presence at once."

"Did she now? How interesting." The red clad nosferatu purred, never ceasing the rhythmic back and forth of his petting to the fledgling's head. Walter's brows arched minutely at that, and he felt compelled to approach closer still, "Yes, quite. Do you intend on keeping her waiting?" He couldn't help but query, unsure how to deal with Alucard in such a mood. He'd read the reports of course, and knew from the one previous experience how their chained monster acted when he had a fledgling. _Unfortunately… _The Butler allowed that thought to trail off into nothing, and forcibly kept himself from recalling the stories of the No Life King's three 'brides' in that dreadful castle.

"Perhaps. Did she also _request _my fledgling's company?" Alucard's words jarred the human from his thoughts, though the tone remained as carefully neutral as the Butler's presence, and Walter scrutinized the copper eyed male warily. "No, she did not."

"A pity." The stroking never ceased, and Walter's still-sharp ears finally caught the pleased whisper-rumble of the girl's purring. Forcing himself to not react visibly, he felt a tad embarrassed about interrupting such a private moment, but it couldn't be helped. The faint flush remaining on his cheeks deepened further when Seras' lashes fluttered languidly to eye him from the scant distance separating them, a blissful lilt to her usual smile. "'lo Walter." She murmured, leaning up into the petting with a sigh, "d'cha need summat?"

"Just a word with your Master, Miss Victoria." Walter answered in his usual neutral tones.

"M'kay." The girl yawned and tucked her face back into her crossed arms, blue orbs hidden once more by the veil of her lashes. Alucard made no move to get up, and still his hand moved in that hypnotic back and forth across the former human's blonde locks.

Walter was seconds from saying something when the door slammed open and an irate Hellsing Heiress stormed into the room, "Alucard!"

In response, the red clad menace set down his glass with a nearly inaudible _clink_ and raised a finger to his lips in a shushing motion, "Shh, you'll wake her."

The sheer gall he had to hush Sir Integra had her face boiling red with anger, her ever present cigar billowing like a smoke stack, and her glacial blue eyes zeroing in on the girl in her pet vampire's lap. Nearly apoplectic with rage, she stalked closer with a hand falling to her holster. Walter knew she was seconds from firing a round into Alucard's head, and he wondered what would happen beyond that point.

Seras stirred, a frown tugging her lips down as she shifted and burrowed closer to the soothing warmth of her Master's abdomen, one arm uncurling to wrap loosely around his waist. With a pleased sigh, and a renewed purr, she settled back into place, her long legs tucked gracefully against the side of the throne like chair they occupied. The too-pleased smirk pulled Alucard's lips back in a show of fang, his shushing finger lowered to slide beneath his fledgling's chin and tilt her head up more into his continuous petting. "She's sleeping." He cooed, that same honeyed poison dripping from his lips to their ears as he gazed at the girl's face for a moment before lifting his carmine orbs back to the mortals trespassing in his domain. A chill went down Walter's spine and he sensed Sir Integra felt it as well.

Silence fell between them for long moments, punctuated by the the growing ash ready to fall from Integra's cigar, until finally she spat a foul epithet at the smirking creature before her and stormed away. Walter followed dutifully in her wake, closing the heavy wooden door behind him with a last glance at their tamed vampires; Alucard's eyes glowed like hellfire, and a rather manic grin split his face as he watched their retreat. And still he continued to pet the girl's hair.

"Poor Miss Victoria, you have no idea what you're in for, do you?" He murmured sympathetically before turning away and allowing the barrier to close behind him, leaving the vampires to themselves for the night.


	23. Is It A Dream Or Is It Real

The Seldom Seen

_**AN:**_No WCHB c16 yet, instead here's another one shot. What do you think, a glimpse of the future or a dream gone out of control? I'd love to hear your opinions. ^^

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_23: Is It A Dream Or Is It Real_

_ "Master, my Master." Seras murmured, blood running down her chin and dripping in artful spatters to the tops of her exposed breasts, a feral look in her crimson gaze._

"_Not anymore, my Seras." He admonished gently, wiping the trail of blood from her corner of her lip with his thumb and sucking it into his mouth with a pleased sigh. The tall red coated man straightened to his full imposing height and the shroud of his shadows withdrew to leave the pair in open view of the battle awaiting them. "Now, my dear, __**now**__ is when you show them what it means to trifle with our bloodline." That same twisted smirk appeared on his face then, the one she recognized from her first mission as a fledgling when she lost herself to the blood thrall. A shiver worked its way down her spine and her hungry gaze raked over his form appreciatively. "Sir, yes Sir, my Master." She repeated the words, winking at him when he rolled his eyes at her cheek, before she leapt into the fray with a smile._

_Her left arm dissolved into a swirling mass of blood shadow that she formed into a multi bladed scythe, swinging in destructive arcs even as bullets peppered her form. Her garnet orbs glowed brighter still as the twisted joy of taking life filled her to bursting._

_A half remembered voice whispered in her ear, pleading with her; _Mignonette, don't lose yourself to this monster.

_Too late, too late, she was lost and gone forever, oh my darling Clementine. Seras Victoria the Vampire was her Master's Childe, and together they would be unstoppable._

_Cloth, flesh, and bone parted beneath her claws, her teeth, and her shadows with the ease of a hot knife through butter. The nigh endless rounds of bullets tearing holes and chunks from her were like mosquito bites; pesky, itchy, but no threat. The blonde spun herself on her heel, and matte blades of ebony and scarlet ripped the guns from the mortals' hands, gathering them in a pile at her feet like a trophy. Yes, a trophy of war._

"_Traitorous bitch!" One of the humans howled as he charged her with a silver blade, and she smiled oh so sweetly as she allowed his approach. "My only loyalty is to my Master, blood bag." Seras purred, and she struck like a cobra, backhanding him to the red mud sending her boot through his ribcage with a laugh._

_Glorious! The thrill of rich, hot, blood on her skin, and the pleasure of plunging into the warm flesh over and over…_

_Licking some of the scarlet liquid from her cheek, the little Draculina eyed the remaining forces rallied against them with a mixture of amusement and something akin to pity. But that was just how things were; they came here to try and kill them, and they'd be slaughtered, corpses, left to rot in their graves like filth. And no one had the power to change that, because her Master wished it so._

"_Seras." His voice cut through the madness and she straightened from her crouch with a giddy expression on her face as she leaped to his side with inhuman grace, "Yes, my Master?" She cooed, utterly dwarfed by the smirking creature before her._

"_You are no longer my fledgling, bound as my servant, you need not call me master." He reminded, though he appeared pleased by her continued usage of the title. Seras smiled and grabbed his no longer gloved hand to rub her cheek against it, purring her response against his cool flesh. "But you __**are**__ my Master. I serve you and only you, my Sire."_

_He flipped his hand to cup her tiny face in his palm, that smug lilt to his lips twisting into possessive hunger. "You look so beautiful, covered in the blood of our enemies, my Seras." He praised, and she felt warmth suffuse her being, a new light in those depthless pools of blood that replaced her blue eyes upon her transformation into his true kin._

"_Alucard! Seras! Why?!" Another mortal man screamed at them, ruining the moment as the men regrouped to surround them, their pitiful guns pointed in trembling hands at the pair of monsters in their midst._

_Seras stepped forward, and lifted her right hand to her lips to lick the blood from her thumb with a sick grin on her face, baring her fangs without shame, "Because my Master wills it."_

_And with that said, she disappeared in a blur of red light and screams. Blood poured like rain, amidst the thunder of Alucard's laughter. The world would be dyed in red, and all at the whim of the No Life King and his most loyal creation._


	24. Happy Happy Kill Kill

The Seldom Seen

_**AN:**_ So, it's still not WCHB, but at least it's something to read. Right?

I got my tooth yanked, urgh, painful. Right now it's not so bad, but I might be sleeping all day as soon as I hit the hay, so I figured I'd get this out now while I could still type coherently. The good news is BigBadWolf chapter 3 is ready to post tomorrow. I'm going to try battling it up with my muse to give in and stop word blocking me.

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_24: Happy Happy Kill Kill _

"Hey, Police Girl." Her Master called from across the crowded warehouse. She grunted in reply, ramming her fist through another ghoul's skull. "I bet I can kill more of them one handed than you can with your teeth." He continued mockingly, a manic grin lighting his pale face with devilish glee.

She glared at him, and congealed grey matter spattered her face as the zombie's head popped like a grape. "You're on!" She shouted, hopped up on adrenaline from the slaughter.

The human men of Hellsing gave each other nervous glances and backed up to the walls, agreeing as a unit to stay the fuck out of the line of fire when their resident vampires got competitive. They had gotten a call about a ghoul infestation near the docks, and like good little soldiers they went off to exterminate them. Alucard had found and silenced their negligent creator, but, being a FREAK, his rotted corpse servants did not die, and they were forced to play clean up. It hadn't taken long for the red coated menace to join them, for he enjoyed killing and taunting his own servant with petty contests.

Seras whipped her arm to the side, dislodging the slowly disintegrating husk of a ghoul, and tucked her bloody gloved hands into the pockets of her jacket to remind herself not to use them as she leaped at another ghoul and ripped its arms off in a shower of fetid crimson. The head came next, and despite the rank flavor of rotted earth, she swallowed some of the blood to keep up her strength. After all, as a fledgling, she needed it to feed her growing vampiric powers.

Keeping a mental tally, she glanced furtively at her Sire and grumbled to herself as she saw him laughing and plunging his fist through their prey's chests. Well, she'd just have to get more creative, then.

This sick game continued for what felt like an eternity to the buxom blonde as she surrounded herself in rivers of blood and fallen heads, ghoulish ash soaking up the ruby droplets like sawdust absorbed messes under carnival rides. Ripping the throat out of a disfigured – armless – zombie, glowing red eyes searched the compound for any more targets. She found none, but her senses told her there was one left _somewhere_.

Instinct urged her to look up, and there it was, an undead warehouse worker inside the operating box of the indoor cranes used to move the crated. Sparing half a glance at her Master, an insane grin split her face as she grabbed at one of the fallen handguns and fired. An echo boomed alongside her, and two bullets shattered the glass and ruptured the ghoul's chest and skull at the same time.

"That was mine!" Seras shouted indignantly. They had been at a tie, surprisingly, and the last one was gone now, like the rest.

"My bullet got there first, Police Girl." He countered, words oozing with manic glee.

She snarled at him and turned on the small platoon of men at the doorway, chest heaving under her crimson uniform and red eyes blazing, "Who won?" She demanded, a dangerous edge to her voice.

Alucard's laughter curled around her ears, and she saw the soldiers glance at each other, neither of them willing to say a word. As Seras' glare intensified, one of the braver men cleared his throat and stepped forward, "Why not have Sir Integra decide?" He offered, voice steady despite the subtle trembling in his hands.

Her Master's laughter intensified and Seras grunted irritably. Fine, they would.

And she would be declared the winner, damnit!


	25. Can Dogs Purr?

The Seldom Seen

* * *

_25: Can Dogs Purr?_

Seras Victoria crept down the sub basement hallways on tip toe, looking around her furtively. She was on a mission.

That's right, a mission!

Fighting back the urge to strike a dramatic pose, the blonde muffled her giggles and skipped down the steps to the lowest level where her Master's rooms lay.

She couldn't count the many times her Master had done something – like pet her head – to get her to purr, and she woke that night thinking she didn't know what made **him** purr. Thus her self appointed mission was born.

Peeking her head around the corner of the stairwell cautiously, she sighed in relief, coast was clear. Beaming, she tip toed over to the massive door at the end of the hall, not intimidated in the least by the dried blood stains marring the oak, having long since congealed in the carvings of magical wards to trap the vampire inside should it be needed. The soft fuzz of her black doggie slippers made it easy to be silent on the otherwise cold stone and she carefully placed her tiny hands on the door to phase through the wood and poke her head into the dark and cavernous room. Perfect! He was still asleep.

Leaping nimbly from the landing to land next to her Sire's coffin with the unnatural grace of the damned, and avoiding the booby traps she knew he left to prank – or maim – the unwary visitor, Seras knelt by the length of gold trimmed black wood and contemplated knocking or… A wicked grin split her cherubic face as she phased her face and right hand through the coffin and flicked his nose, jerking back a good twenty feet within a split second to perch on his throne innocently.

The lid flew off the coffin and hit the floor with a loud _bang_, and Seras – oh so innocently perched so far away – did not flinch as the snarling figure of her Master sat up, hair tousled – sexily – by sleep and red eyes blazing like hell fire.

"Police Girl…" He growled, voice deep and throaty, and she withheld a shiver by sheer force of will. "Yes, Master?" She chirped, keeping up the oh so innocent and harmless act. Clearly she couldn't have done it! She was no where near him.

Crossing her feet at the ankle, draped a bit insolently across the throne sideways, the wagging tongues of the black slippers added another layer of incredulity in the raven haired male's expression that was quickly smothered and forced into a passivity that Seras knew for a fact was a lie. She beamed at him and wiggled her fingers in a gesture of greeting, her blue pajamas, with their frolicking black puppies looked so out of place in the gloom of his hall like room that her Master's amusement could not be contained any longer.

Score! She got away with it.

'_**That's what you think, fledgling.' **_He whispered into her head and she wanted to smack herself. Crap.

And quite suddenly he was _there_, looming above her with one of his trademark smirks baring his sharp teeth, and … oh dear, shirtless. It was so very hard to keep her eyes from gluing themselves to his chest.

"Now, Childe, what have I told you about waking me so rudely?" His voice made her toes curl, the deep baritone tickling across her ears like melted chocolate – man, she missed chocolate so much… - and she tipped her head back to gaze up at him with wide innocent eyes. "Nothing?" She answered, half questioningly.

He snorted.

"What did you want, Police Girl?" He asked, lifting the girl up into his arms and dropping himself into the throne, settling her across his lap in one fluid motion.

Her thoughts began to wander then, so close to such an attractive and shirtless male. _Mmm…_

Absently, she reached a hand out and stroked the ivory of his sculpted chest, tracing the dips of his muscles with ungloved fingers.

His hand captured hers then, trapping it to his skin, the cool leather a stark contrast from the heat rolling off of him. She blinked and looked up into his eyes, seeing the amusement there. A flush crept up her cheeks.

What was she doing here again..?

Aside from embarrassing herself, that is. Apparently.

"Well?" He purred, and she blinked again, her thoughts scrambling to recall his question. Oh, right, it was the one she just asked herself. Duh.

"I just wanted to see you?" She half asked, flicking her blue eyes from side to side furtively. Well, she did! So it wasn't a lie or anything. Just not the whole truth either.

He snorted again and released her. They made quite the sight, she thought wryly. A six foot something – shirtless! – giant sitting on a red and gold throne like chair with a five foot something blonde in his black silk pant clad lap, her child like appearance at odds with her rather excessively generous bust and the fact that she was a walking abomination. A monster. A vampire.

Ooh, that's what she was doing! Her self appointed mission returned to her in a flash, and she wondered a bit sheepishly why she had flicked his nose like that. How would annoying him help her mission to get him to purr? Though she certainly couldn't complain about the view. Heh.

Draping an arm across her Sire's shoulders with that same, slightly overused innocent look, Seras's fingers wandered up the side of his neck and tickled along the back of his ear. Scritch. Scritch. Scritch.

The look he gave her made it hard not to burst out laughing.

"What?" She chirped, blue eyes sparkling with light and mischief.

"You are taking far more liberties with my person than usual, Police Girl. What's the occasion?"

She laughed, a tinge of nervousness in the bell like sound, and her smile widened from ear to ear, "Nothing?" Oh that was a lie! Hee.

"And why," he drawled, seeming more amused than angry, "do I not believe you?"

The girl fluttered her lashes coquettishly and the hand that was still behind his head began to run through the strands of his hair the way he would pet her when she did something to please him.

His lips quirked and she felt a thrill go through her, thinking she might have succeeded, but he reached up and swung her arm back over his head to place her hands in her lap. She pouted a bit.

"Seras…" He warned, and she shivered. She _loved_ it when he used her name!

"Bringing sexy back?" She grinned, running her hands up from his knees towards his thighs, reveling in the feel of the ebony silk.

She felt him shiver and shift beneath her, and she flicked her gaze up at him from beneath her blonde fringe, a secretive smirk on her lips.

He laughed, and captured her wrists in one hand, holding them down more firmly in her lap. "Hm, and when did it escape in the first place?"

Seras couldn't think of an answer, and her mind wandered again for a moment. _Mmm…_ the feel of her Master's thighs… Oh my. Naughty thoughts!

He inhaled deeply and smirked, leering at her, "Mm, Police Girl, I didn't realize you were feeling so frisky." His free hand squeezed her hip and traced little circles across the soft cotton of her ridiculously comfy pjs. "Dud you come to _play_?" He purred, and she pondered if that counted as a success before he stood and clasped her completely willing form to his chest, and carried her over to his coffin.

She almost considered wiggling out of his arms, _almost_, but… Mmm… well, she wanted him to purr, didn't she? TeeHee.


	26. Seras' Pyjamas

The Seldom Seen

_**AN:**_Last silly chapter for the night. WCHB is making progress, and should potentially update tomorrow. I think.  
In any case, here's some random fluff. Blame Lithi and Skype's share screen option for her giving me random ideas when typing last chapter. It's all her fault!

* * *

_26: Seras' Pyjamas_

Seras was so excited!

Sir Integra said she could go to the mall and pick out something for her birthday. She hadn't been to the mall since long before her Sire turned her, and she hadn't been allowed out of the manor alone yet. She was still a relatively new vampire, only about two months along in her journey towards immortality.

"Are you ready?" The woman's voice broke her thoughts and she glanced up into the ice blue eyes of the tanned blonde in the business suit, and she snapped out a quick salute out of habit, "Sir! Yes." She laughed.

Sir Itegra graced her with the hint of a smile as she turned and strode out the open front doors to the waiting limo, "Good. Come along then, Seras."

The duo wandered the mall, Seras 'ooh'ing and 'ahh'ing at various things, but nothing quite caught her eye for her present. Hah, her present. The thought of it sent giddy butterflies whirling in her stomach.

She could tell the statuesque blonde was getting a little frustrated, but she continued to stroll alongside the shorter girl indulgently.

Seras' eyes travelled across a certain window and she stopped dead, "Ooh, that one!" Scampering eagerly over towards the store, she heard the knight's footsteps following her as she pushed open the glass. Plush things lined the ceiling, but the blue fabric she'd seen in the window turned out to not be quite right. Frowning, she turned, and then spotted another set and her eyes widened in delight.

A set of pjyamas was displayed nefpre her, as blue as her eyes with black puppies frolicking on her fabric. Upon closer inspection, she noticed with puzzlement, the pups had three sets of red eyes. How… odd. Canting her head to one side curiously, she stepped closer and her ankle boot squished something exceedingly soft and pliant. Lifting her foot, she glanced down and nearly squealed in delight. So cute!

A black fuzzy dog slipper lay across the floor, a pink tongue waggling at the end, and she noted that this hound had six eyes as well. She crouched down to pick it up, and as her eyes wandered to where it escaped from, seeing a mountain of the footwear crammed into boxes tucked against the wall.

The store owner coughed nervously as he stood nearby, looking sheepish, "My assistant ordered them before he was fired." He muttered, "They never sell… Well, here, miss, we've got other more pleasant looking sleep wear this way." He said leadingly, but Seras grabbed a matching slipper and stood with a smile on her face, "I like them!" She chirped.

Sir Integra laughed – so quietly that only the fledgling's sharp ears caught it – at the look of shock on the man's face that swiftly turned to relief and pleasure.

Moments later they exited the shop, Seras humming happily and swinging her bag at her side, "Oh thank you, Sir!" She gushed, feeling excited to get back to the manor and put on her new comfortable pjs.

"You're quite welcome, Seras. Happy early birthday."

They returned to Hellsing Manor quite swiftly and Seras skipped happily down the stairs to her room in the sub basement, humming cheerily. She fluffed her hair up with her hands and grinned, before changing and wriggling gleefully at the feel of the soft cotton on her pale flesh and the delicious fluff surrounding her toes. She flopped herself on the bed and grinned up at the lid of her four poster coffin, obscenely comfortable amongst the soft plush of her blankets.

She yawned then, feeling a bit tired. She thought it was a bit odd, but shrugged it off, dozing.

She woke abruptly to the sound of her Master's near hysterical laughter, "Police Girl," he gasped, "what are you wearing?"

"What?" She huffed a bit petulantly, "They're comfortable."

He roared with gales of laughter, and she felt her lower lip jutting out in a pout. "Master, you're mean!"

"Only you, Police Girl. Only you."

What was so funny? They were cute!

Hmph.


	27. Kiss 'n Tell

The Seldom Seen

_**AN: **_Phew! Is it hot in here or is it just me? I think someone forgot to close the sauna door. ;)  
Lots of steamy goodness ahoy! I'm not sure if this warrants a rating change or not. Hah. Try not to kill me when you reach the end, hm? I still need to finish WCHB.

* * *

_27: Kiss 'n Tell_

Seras Victoria was just casually strolling along the sub basement hallways, towards her room, actually, when the lights began to flicker. Once. Twice. The lights went out around her, enveloping the blonde in darkness.

She canted her head to the side curiously, her blue eyes glowing with their own internal light as she stood there, in the middle of the pitch black hall – that she could see clear as day regardless – and waited. There, she felt _something_ to her right, and her lips quirked as she cartwheeled out of reach of the grasping shadow tendril.

She bit her lip to smother a giggle as she felt a ripple of discontent from the presence in the walls. Turning, she childishly stuck her tongue out and pulled on her lower lid to make a face. Quick as a flash there was a – as lame as this sounds – shadow within the darkness sweeping for her legs. She shrieked with laughter as she jumped over it and bolted for the supposed safety of the stairs at the end of the underground corridor.

…And straight into and through one of her Master's portals. She jerked to a stop on the other side and stamped her foot in a show of temper, "That's not fair!" She called to thin air as she risked a glance over her shoulder to confirm that the liquid shadow had vanished as swiftly as it appeared to throw her off course.

His mocking laughter filled her ears and she had a sense of him wagging his finger at her the way one would scold a child. Snorting, she closed her eyes and sent her senses out in a controlled wave to map her location, she got only as far as the end of the new hallway before a greater darkness smothered her reaching tendrils, shoving them back into her head with a chiding 'tsk tsk' echoing in her mind.

"Oh come **on**!" She protested, crossing her arms over her chest with a glare at the walls. Growling to herself about _high handedness'_ and _'cheating'_, she sighed and turned to stalk back to the opposite end of the hall, and took a right. "Bloody maze down here."

'_**Police Girl, don't you want to play?'**_ The dark and sensuous voice of her Sire oozed into her head and sent a shiver down her spine as she took yet another right.

"Do I have any choice?" She muttered grumpily in reply. It's not that she didn't like to … _play_ with her Master, but she most certainly did not appreciate it when he cheated.

'_**I'd say you always have a choice, but in this case, I do believe you're correct. Run for me, fledgling.'**_ He crooned, and she felt a phantom hand caress the nape of her neck. She leaned subtly into that insubstantial touch, and then shrieked in indignation as it moved and gave her a firm swat on the buttocks.

"MASTER! You're mean." She hissed, breaking into a run as she felt that same _something_ from before coalescing behind her. It was growing slowly, taking its time to form … her head jerked up as she recognized that particular _tang_ in the air as a summons. A very familiar summon.

Slapping her palm to her forehead, she grunted and darted down another crossroads, needing to put some distance between herself and the creature that would shortly be chasing her. Diving behind a suit of armor – pff, like that would actually help – she hunkered down and closed her eyes tightly to delve within the well of her powers, searching for a particular current. Finding it, she grinned, and tugged on it, her arms quickly filled with her own bloody shadows, and she bolted back to her feet and to yet another intersection. Smirking, she turned and waited patiently for Baskerville's approach.

The hound woofed at her, multiple red eyes focused on her with playful intensity, his tongue dangling from his open mouth. When he was about twenty feet from her, she released her own summon to the floor; the cat (Lucius – though she called him Fluffy because he hated it) took one look at the hell hound and hissed, arching his back and running off to the left while Seras took a right. She laughed.

Fluffy would corner himself and then turn on Baskerville, and chase the poor dog to the ends of the earth. She'd found out swiftly enough that her Master's familiar's weaknesses were her, and cats. It just so happened – and she was a bit suspicious of this – that her familiar was a cat, and Lucius really didn't like dogs.

Assured that she didn't need to run for her life – pff, more like 'run for her dry clothes', Baskerville's favorite hobby was to lick her until she was absolutely **dripping** with dog drool – and potentially miss the correct turn, she jogged along at a leisurely pace, anticipating the elder vampire's next move.

Just as she suspected, she felt a subtle ripple of power and in a split second realized his game, so she jumped and screwed up her face, the flare of her own powers sending a sickening sense of vertigo through her as gravity reversed and pulled her to the ceiling. Ugh, using so many different aspects of her otherworldly self in such a short amount of time was really starting to give her a headache.

Sticking her tongue out mockingly at the seething mass of shadows on the floor(new roof) that would have abducted her into an even deeper level of the estate, she hurried along and came to a new T shaped intersection. Humming to herself, she looked left, then right, then smirked as she began to sink (upwards) down into the floor above, only to shriek as something caught her ankle and yanked her up and dangled her a good foot in the air, the tug of gravity returning to normal and sending the blood rushing to her head.

"Now, now, Police Girl, that's not playing by the rules." Alucard purred, leering down at her suggestively, and she quickly swung her free leg up to block his view of her white panties under her skirt, dropping her arms to try and touch the ground with her palms to brace herself; in response he only lifted her higher, and her fingertips wiggled for a second before she huffed and attempted to glare at him upside down and around the swell of her breasts.

"The rules are bull, Master! You get to use your powers, but I don't?"

"Precisely."

Gritting her teeth and growling in frustration, she jerked her body to gain some momentum to swing up and grab onto his arm with her own gloved hands, digging the brown leather into his red sleeve to prevent him from simply shaking her off. He smirked, and practically threw her into the wall as he let go of her ankle and swung his arm out to pin her to the stone. She grunted as the impact knocked the wind out of her and her head bounced off the wall. Now she really **did** have a headache!

"Maasterr…" She hissed, squinting against the throbbing in her skull, he made a soft sound and moved in to pin her to the stones with his chest to hers, and batted her legs open with his free hand to situate his hips into the cradle of her thighs.

"Yes, Police Girl?" He crooned, leaning in to tickle her ear with his hot breath and trace his tongue along the outer shell. She shivered, and her fingers clenched convulsively on his arm, back arching.

Words failed her and she lost the fight to hold back her guttural moan. God damnit, she hated it when he distracted her like… _Mmm…_

Tilting her head back invitingly, she groaned as his tongue traced a hot path down her neck to play with her collarbone – she had the sense of mind to wonder what happened to her jacket, and then promptly forgot as he nipped the skin there. Letting go of his arm, her hands flew up to tangle in his hair, trying to pull him closer.

He chuckled against her skin, the puffs of air on slick flesh wreaking havoc on her nerves, and lightly dug his right fang into her shoulder, drawing a single bead of blood that he lapped up with one sensuous swipe of his sinful tongue. She gasped and arched further, grinding her breasts in his chest, the white tank top straining to contain them without the added support of her gold jacket. She could _feel_ his smirk as one hand rose to pin her shoulders to the wall while the other fell to her hips, holding her lower half to him as he straightened and gave her a smoldering look from beneath his lashes and licked his lips.

"Feeling a little hot under the collar?" He mocked, the low tones of his voice caressing her ears like silk. She shuddered and arched back even further in a vain attempt to cool her forehead on the chilled stones. 'Hot under the collar' was an understatement!

"I can help you with that." He cooed, and the hand on her shoulder moved quick as a flash to cut open her shirt and slice neatly between the cups of her bra, leaving her stomach exposed as the halves of the white top fell away. "Master!" Seras gasped, indignation lifting some of the lustful haze around her thoughts.

He chuckled quietly, the sound rather menacing in the abandoned halls of Hellsing's sub basement labyrinth, and leaned down achingly slowly towards her heaving chest – she was so worked up, she couldn't help but pant like a bitch in heat – to nose the remains of her bra aside and rub his face across the exposed skin of her breasts. He hummed, pleased by the satin feel of her flesh, and made a great show of getting his face full of the innocent blonde fledgling's cleavage. She groaned breathily and her fingers returned to his raven locks, tugging at his hair to shove him deeper into the valley of her breasts.

He growled – or was that a purr? – into her left breast, and turned his head to sink his teeth into the globe, suckling at the trickle of crimson as Seras shrieked and tensed under him, nearly ripping handfuls of his hair out as her muscles locked. He shifted his position slightly and moved her down with the hand on her hips to straddle his thigh, she bucked helplessly against the hardness shoved into her apex.

"Police Girl…" He hissed, releasing her wounded flesh and licking at it – it healed instantly – before switching to the right and taunting her by tracing an aching trail around the circumference of her breast, mockingly avoiding the tip to lavish attention on the delicious expanse of untouched skin. Seras whimpered and moaned, tugging frantically at his hair to drive him to the center, her nipple felt hard as a rock, and her core throbbed as she writhed against his leg and the wall.

After what felt like an eternity of exquisite torture, her Master conceded to her demands and captured the peak of her breast in his mouth, suckling the caramel nipple and teasing it with his tongue before biting deeply into the up thrust curve, blood teeth parting flesh like a hot knife through butter.

She screamed, and lava burned in her veins. Oh god, she was burning up! For a second she panicked because she couldn't drag enough air into her lungs, but then she remembered she really didn't need to breathe, it was just a habit.

As if sensing her moment of distraction from the pain-and-pleasure he was gifting his Childe, Alucard growled and jerked his head to the side, ripping a jagged gash into her tit, and greedily swallowed the increase in blood like a man dying of thirst.

Seras jerked so hard that her head slammed into the wall, her scream echoing through the hallway as the fire concentrated itself into a ball of liquid agony in her stomach. Quivering muscles locked up as electric shocks tore through her arched form, and the firm leather clad thigh between her own slammed upwards punishingly. Just as she found herself facing the edge of the proverbial cliff, Alucard did something completely unforgivable. He stopped.

Snarling at her Sire in a hormone driven rage, Seras' eyes blazed with the fires of hell as she curled her fingers – with their newly grown claws – into his scalp to shove him back onto her needy breast.

He smirked at her, blood dripping from his lips down his chin, "New game, Seras," he growled, voice guttural and deep, "Hide and seek. You're it."

With that, he vanished, and Seras shrieked in outrage as she slid down the wall and collapsed to the floor on trembling legs. The cold air stung her slowly healing breast and her skull throbbed as she took in heaving gasps of air to try and recombobulate her senses.

Black fury overwhelmed her and her shadows exploded outwards before turning back in on her lust shackled form, dissolving it into the mass of ebony and crimson. She slithered into the cracks of the walls, oozing through and heading straight for the room at the end of the lowest dungeon where the cocky bastard of an elder vampire was waiting.

The almost-liquid bubbled and seethed with her temper, and a menacing hiss gurgled from its depths. He was going to finish what he started, and then she was going to **beat his face in** for leaving her high and dry like that.

It took her but seconds to arrive in the cavernous hall, dropping from the ceiling and tackling the patiently waiting nosferatu, dragging him to the floor and slamming her mouth over his with a snarl. Teeth clicked together and practically sparked with the force of the feral kiss, the half naked blonde practically devouring the smirking man's mouth.

'_**I love it when you get aggressive.'**_ He purred into her mind, and rolled to pin her to the floor. Seras made a grumbling sort of snarl in reply and jerked her head to rip open his bottom lip and suction the wounded flesh into her mouth.

The sinful glory of his blood only drove her further and she raked her claws down his chest to tear the grey vest and white undershirt to ribbons.

He growled approvingly and shrugged his jacket off, the ruined shirt and vest swiftly following, leaving him clad in only his pants, his boots, and his slightly rumpled cravat.

Seras wrapped her hands once more in the glorious length of his shaggy hair, pulling him deeper into the savagery of their dueling mouths.

Alucard snarled in return and scooped her into his arms, her stockinged legs wrapping around his waist in a death lock as he stood and threw them into the waiting depths of his coffin.

What happened next? Well, a girl doesn't kiss and tell, now does she?


	28. A Perfect Night

The Seldom Seen

_**AN:** _To put it out of the way ahead of time; yes, I know I'm mixing the manga, the anime, and the OVA in this piece. I thought it flowed rather nicely.  
I'm tempted to be mean and say 'no WCHB updates until someone guesses who the human is', as she is a canon character. We'll see. XD  
For now, I hope you enjoy the randomness my brain conjures. (It's all Lithi's fault, she linked me to a site to read the manga, and I suddenly felt like writing.)

**EDIT NOTE: **Due to confusion; the second half of the scene is Alucard, Seras, and Integra, but Seras didn't know their names yet. I guess it was kind of confusing the way I wrote it, sorry.

* * *

_28: A Perfect Night_

Seras Victoria would never forget the first night of her life, though, really, most would probably consider it the last. It was simple, really; sent out with Eddie and Simon to investigate the sick fuck hiding out in the church and murdering the citizens of Cheddar. But it all went so terribly wrong... _Heh_. Or so terribly right? Well, perhaps she was biased.

The thrill of the adrenaline in her veins, the terror, the trees and lurching shadows. She could still see them; the rotting ghoulish corpses of the hapless mortals that crossed the demon's path and were consumed. _Eddie… Simon…_

His words echoed in her head, still; "Your little boyfriends belong to me, now, and soon you'll belong to me too."

She'd taken great pleasure in shooting him in the head. Unfortunately it didn't do any good. He'd laughed, and sneered at her. "I look for loyalty in my servants. I wouldn't want a vampire with free will running around." He'd knocked the gun from her hand – the clip was empty anyways – and pinned her arms behind her back. Her mind was racing and despite her struggles, he was too strong. "A pity I can't find a virgin as… lovely as you." He'd mocked, "I'm going to violate you." He slipped his hand lewdly between her thighs, she felt violated, and struggled harder, "I'm going to drain your blood slowly," he again groped at her breast and she jerked, trying to tear free of him. "Then you will join with the rest of my ghouls, my slave for eternity." He'd put his fangs to her neck and she screamed. She screamed and screamed and _screamed_.

And then _he_ appeared. Her knight in bloody armor. Heh, he'd mock her endlessly for thinking that about him, but it was true. He'd allowed himself to be shot into bloody scraps of meat, allowing the perverse mockery of a priest to think he'd won, and then – oh, she'd thought him so terrifying then, so inhuman – he performed his favorite trick; pulling himself back together to demoralize his foe and flaunt his power. He'd killed the ghouls, taking great pleasure in the tainted priest's shock over the demise of his undead servants. She could recal every single word; "No, how can he be killing them? It's those bullets!"

"The silver cross of Manchester Cathedral was melted down to make these thirteen millimeter exploding shells. Nothing I shoot ever gets back up again." Oh he'd sounded so _pleased_ about that last fact, face hidden by the shadow of his hat, only the glow of his amber lenses and sharp ivory teeth glinting in the moonlight.

The coward had used her for a meat shield, and babbled about making deals, of trading her safety for his life and freedom. The monster in red had ignored the pathetic waste of vampiric flesh and grinned, "Are you a virgin, my dear?"

She was flabbergasted. What?! Her voice was stuck somewhere in her throat, and she heard the priest question what the – then unnamed – other was doing. "I'm asking if you're a virgin."

"Bu-…I…" She could still feel the slight sting of those needle tips against her throat, and she was scared.

Dimly, she heard the coward call the man with the gun a bastard, and the red clad monster snapped at her, raising his gun, "Answer me!" The power in his words throbbed through her very being, and a blush brightened her cheeks, "Y-Yes, I am!"

And then the world exploded.

A ripping pain tore through her chest, and she tried to gasp, but the blood forced its way up her throat and out of her mouth. The copper tang burned as she collapsed like a broken rag doll. Oh god, this felt so familiar, the weakness, the taste of pennies in her mouth, the sickening numbness as her body shut down. _Not again_.

Somehow, she'd landed on her back, and her slowly clouding vision caught sight of the moon. She stared at it; it was full and bright, mocking her with the height of its life while hers drained away into the unforgiving grass. His shadow loomed from the darkness, then, blocking her view of the ripe moon, the only thing she could truly see of him was the glow of his glasses.

"I had to shoot through you, to pierce his heart." He spoke then, sounding calm and unapologetic, "I'm sorry, but you're dying, and there's no time left." No he wasn't. She knew, somehow, that he'd wanted this from the moment he saw her. "The choice is yours. What do you want to do?"

_The choice?_ Hah! What choice? To die, or become a monster. Somehow… despite the haunted memories floating through her minds eye of her parents _(Daddy…Mommy…)_, she knew it was never really a choice. She didn't want to die, even if death meant finally rejoining her family. Her hand lifted for him as she struggled for air, tears swimming in her diffuse blue eyes.

Just… a bit… further…

The strength left her and her arm collapsed, but he caught her hand, and the sensation of him cradling her limp palm was the only thing still tying her to that dying world.

The moon's glow began to fade and everything turned to black as her breath shortened and her lids began to feel _so heavy_…

"Police Girl," she heard his words as if underwater, "tonight is truly a beautiful night."

* * *

Fire. Fire was burning in her veins, and she choked, gasping for breath. If anything, the oxygen seemed to fan the flames higher and she tried to scream, but the sound came out as a feeble whimper.

"Shh, it'll pass." That deep voice crooned, and she felt the warmth of his gloved hand gently clasping over her mouth, muffling her pathetic noises. Oh god, it hurt, it hurt so bad.

She tried to struggle, but her limbs wouldn't respond, and her eyelids refused to open. She felt scared, trapped in this dark place while burning alive.

After a moment she felt a weight settle atop her head, his free hand, and it stroked from one side to the other, lifting, and resettling, and repeating the soothing motion. Lulled by the petting, she ceased her fight against the fire, and as it consumed her, she felt the heat of the flames ebbing until nothing was left but smoldering embers. "Good girl." He purred, and despite herself, she felt her lips curl into a smile against his palm. His hand moved, and she realized she could feel her body again, and her lashes fluttered before opening and revealing to her a set of eyes that glowed with the same intensity as the fire that just ate her alive and reshaped her as this new being. She stared up at him, transfixed, and felt almost as if she were falling upward into his gaze. He blinked, and the spell was broken – somehow, she felt as though he did it on purpose, though she couldn't say for certain.

She blinked in return, and tried to move, but as soon as she tried a crippling pain shot through her and she cried out hoarsely, collapsing back to the red grass, panting.

"The transformation is not yet complete, Police Girl. Normally, you would sleep it off in a coffin, in fact, I am somewhat surprised you are awake at all." He grinned at her, and his teeth glinted in the silver light of the moon. She got the strangest feeling that, rather than being proud of her, he was pleased with himself for having such good taste in … whatever she now was. _Vampire_.

"But this will do." He stood then, and moved away from her, and she bit deeply into her lip to withhold the whimper of protest at such actions. What did she care? Confused, and feeling somewhat disoriented still, she drifted in a state of half consciousness, staring at the moon until he returned.

Quite suddenly she felt cold, freezing in fact, and she began to tremble and shake uncontrollably as her teeth chattered and her eyes squinched shut in discomfort. She heard the subtle _crunch_ of his footsteps through the grass and nearly jumped out of her skin as she felt something drape itself across her. In an instant she was bundled up in a light brown cloth and hoisted in the air, her arms trapped at her sides and legs tied together by the canvas like material. She tensed as he cradled her to his chest, and turned to face the moon, his long legs eating up the earth in languid strides.

After a minute of laying stiff as a board in his silent hold, she felt something in her relax and even begin to purr at his close proximity. She hummed softly and learned her cheek against the solid support of his chest, breathing in the smell of earth, of trees, of gunpowder and blood, and a strange wild scent all its own. She felt safe, protected from the world in the cocoon he'd wrapped her in.

Some nagging voice in her head told her to protest his action, to demand answers, to fight and struggle and scream bloody murder. But another, louder, part of her told her that this was perfectly natural, and that she should revel in the closeness of the man that had killed her and then gifted her a rebirth.

She warred with herself internally, and missed completely the smug twist of his lips as he glanced down at her head upon reaching the main road.

The rhythm of his walk changed, and she heard the measured thud of each step across the asphalt as they moved ever closer to the borders of the little village where her world ended ad a new one began. Pulling herself from the mire of her thoughts, she blinked and her ears caught the sound of helicopters, and her eyes caught the flash of lights. Such familiar things recalled her to the here and now, and she glanced out of the corner of her eye to see a statuesque blonde woman standing apart from the chaos of law enforcement gathering around the road block. They were headed straight for her.

The man that was holding her stopped, and spoke to the woman dressed as a man; "Mission objective accomplished. The target vampire has been silenced. The limited power release is completed."

"It took you far too long to silence just one target." The woman spoke coldly, and Seras felt a new chill ripple through her, "What was the outcome?"

"Got rid of the priest. No survivors."

Seras cringed subtly, and tried to hide herself in the man's chest, feeling uncomfortable under the weight of that glacial stare from the female that held some power over the monster in red. The word 'sorry' clogged in her throat, and she remained silent, unsure why she felt the need to apologize.

Some of the men who had loitered near the blonde made confused grunts and questioned the statement, "Huh? What about that girl? Isn't she a survivor?"

The female turned on her heel and gave the gawking crowd a cold stare, and they swiftly retreated. Seras felt that that the other knew exactly what the raven haired male meant. (She wished she knew his name.)

"I'll have someone take care of her." Seras refused to look at the woman, feeling anxiety twist in her gut. Something told her that it would be wrong to be separated from the creature holding her so gently. When she heard the soft tap of shoes, she half glanced at the woman's back, a subtle frown pulling at her lips.

"No." The woman stopped. "I want you to transfer the Police Girl to the Hellsing Organization." The man spoke, and the chill that was threatening to overcome her abated, warmed by his defense and claim of her.

She turned to glance over her shoulder at them, and Seras met her gaze for a brief moment, secure in the arms of the man who killed her.

"You don't make decisions." The other spoke, and Seras could swear that had she any less self control, the words would have been a growl.

"The Police Girl made the choice for herself." He countered smoothly, and Seras tipped her head back to watch him.

Rather than respond further the blonde continued to walk away from them, and spoke only when she reached the line of vehicles blocking the road. "It's time for us to leave." The jeep's headlights snapped on and Seras cringed at the assault of light on her eyes. She watched the woman climb into a helicopter, and said not a word as it took off, leaving them behind.

She glanced back up at the man, and thought she saw a frown on his face as he gazed at the mechanical bird carrying its passengers off into the night. "Um…" She began, feeling compelled to sooth what ailed him, though she didn't know why.

"This was a perfect night." He responded, and tipped his head down to look directly at her for the first time since leaving the clearing. "Right?"

She blinked, and made an unsure sound.

He smirked, and began to walk again, towards the jeep that had its headlights trained on them like a miniature sun. Towards their transport to Hellsing. Towards the future, that no longer offered the mortal joys of humanity for the blonde bundle in the crimson coated monster.

And upon looking back at that night, she truly had no regrets. Not anymore.


	29. I Missed You

The Seldom Seen

_**AN:** _Still kinda sick, but I wrote this to give y'all something to read. Once again, blame Lithi. :D

* * *

_29: I Missed You_

Seras Victoria missed her Master. Quite badly, in fact. When everything was said and done and the fires were put out, Seras had pulled her Master's coffin from the wreckage of the plane on the ship and carried it back to Hellsing and into the underground levels. For the first few nights (days) she had slept in her own room after visiting Integra in the hospital to ensure she was still all right (she was).

But then she'd gotten lonely. Oh, it was no fault of Integra's – whom was charged with rebuilding London by the Queen – it was simply the fact that her Master was gone, and Hellsing was empty. She took to spending time in his room, curled up on his throne like chair and dozing fitfully, wrapped in the warmth of her shadows that took the place of her left arm.

As the days passed into weeks, the chair no longer held the scent of her Sire, smothered by her own, and this saddened her greatly. Under Sir Integra's suggestions and mild guidance, Seras had started her meditative self lessons to try and mold the shadows into a convincing arm shape to cover with long sleeves and a glove. It wasn't working out all that well.

Frustrated with herself, and wishing desperately that Alucard would return _now_ rather than later, Seras did the unthinkable and crept into his coffin to sleep that night(morning). She dreamed of him in a sea of blood, killing, killing, _killlingkillingkilling_… But the dead did not become a part of him, instead, they vanished, as though… he were removing them from himself.

She woke with an oddly calm feeling in her heart and her head, and the swirling mass of blood tainted shadow coalesced into a single mass on the first try, taking a mostly recognizable shape of a human arm.

Months turned into years – three, to be exact – and Hellsing Manor was mostly rebuilt, though it was not yet as grand as it once was the lower levels had remained intact, allowing Seras to stay in the only home she had left during the on and off construction. She had been sent on clean up missions on innumerable occasions to deal with lingering FREAKS or unearthed ghouls. She was, it felt like, Britain's only defense against the undead after the London Blitz.

She was returning from one such mission this night, actually, and she dropped her weapons off in her room to clean later – not her beloved cannons, sadly, but still high caliber assault weapons beyond normal human capacity, so that was something – and took a shower to wash away all the putrefied blood and grime clinging to her skin and hair. She emerged minutes later, rubbing the towel through her messy blonde spikes, and clad in an oversized t-shirt with a depiction of a white kitten that she'd fabric painted black wings and fangs to. Flinging the towel onto her unused bed, she phased through the floor to reach the lowest sub basement level where her Master's chambers still lay. Grinning to herself at the thought of what his reaction would be, the fledgling giggled and gently lifted the lid to crawl into the black coffin she'd snuck a fuzzy blanket into and secreted away the black dog plush she'd modified with extra eyes and named Baskerville.

Cuddling the doll to her chest, she fell into an easy doze that deepened into dream haunted sleep, filled with her Master and the growing ocean of blood and slowly shrinking mass of bodies surrounding him.

When the years became the first decade, Seras had stopped sleeping in her Master's coffin on a regular basis, instead having her own customized one; it was a bit like her Master's with crimson velvet lining the insides, dirt from her birthplace beneath a comfy layer, the outside was pure obsidian. Though it had no phrases like her Master's 'bird of hermes', if you looked closely enough a signature could be found in the corner reading 'For Integra's pet Monster'.

She was Integra's constant companion and bodyguard, and allowed the woman (who was only two years her senior, despite their difference in appearance as she didn't physically age any longer) to vent her frustrations with the new Round Table members not getting along. Time had a way of fixing such things, and if it didn't, Seras Victoria – Hellsing's Trump Card – was there as a back up plan. Nothing a little well placed intimidation couldn't cure…

The blonde grinned savagely to herself, ivory teeth sharp and blood hungry as she recalled how easy it was to cow the upstarts with a simple show of allowing her arm to turn black and leak tendrils around the edges.

Ah, but that was a bad habit, she scolded herself. She was becoming a bit too much like her Master, according to Sir Integra.

"Not that that's necessarily a bad thing…" The Draculina sighed and decided to visit her Sire's chambers. It wasn't long before she was asleep once more in the last connection she had to her Master; his coffin. Again she dreamed of him, and she noted that the number of bodies was diminished by approximately a third of their number from the first night she'd seen him this way.

Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing questioned her surety of Alucard's return. Seras would smile, and simply tell the woman that she _knew_ he'd be back.

Ten years became fifteen, and fifteen became twenty. London was almost fully restored to its former glory, though the peoples were hesitant to return, and Hellsing's work was nearing its end, though they would forever be charged with protecting their great nation from the unholy and unjust.

Though she didn't admit it, Seras knew that Integra had given up hope on Alucard's return. She understood, truly, but that did not hamper the fact that she _knew_.

The little Draculina had done a lot of growing up in the years since her Sire's disappearance, and she considered it a good thing. She had a good grasp on her powers, and had long since been drinking the medical blood regularly. In fact, the blonde often enjoyed taking a 'midnight stroll' in the form of a small swarm of bats, and Integra understood.

"Such a beautiful moon tonight…" She mused, staring up at the ripe sphere glowing in the night sky.

"You're sounding more and more like him as the years pass, Seras. It's almost eerie." Integra remarked, a gentle smirk twisting her pale lips as she puffed absently on her ever present cigar, her remaining blue eye focused on the eternal child – Tiger Lilly – leaning against the glass of her study window.

The girl laughed and gave her human Master a fond smile.

Then one night, as Seras patrolled the halls of the manor while Integra – now in her fifties – slept, she heard the familiar bang of her Master's gun going off. She was there in an instant, kicking open the door with a cry, "Master? What happened!"

In the dim light of the room she saw a figure slumped against the wall and something surged in her, and (her concentration wavered a bit on her left arm, though it still held her gun, tendrils oozed up around the edge of her sleeve) she flicked on the light to gasp as the familiar red coat came into view and confirmed her suspicions.

Laughter pooled around the body as the blood reabsorbed and his gravelly voice rumbled in her ears like silk, "And you're noisy as always. What a violent welcome."

"Master!" Seras cried, shocked and elated. She wanted to run to him and tackle him back to the floor in a hug, but restrained herself (for now).

"Late home coming, eh, Alucard?" Integra asked dryly, perched on her bed casually, "What were you doing?"

"I kept killing. My own lives… inside of me. Three million, four hundred and twenty four thousand, eight hundred and sixty seven. Kept killing until there weren't **any **left. All except **one**. Now I'm **here**. I'm everywhere, and nowhere. That's why I'm here."

"Too late, you're too late Alucard." Integra scolded, smirking. Seras could tell there was more behind her words than that.

"I'm sorry." Her Master responded with his own grin.

"You must feel like drinking blood, don't you? From **me.**" Integra continued, leaning forward and widening her smirk as she spoke with her long missing Servant.

"Ah, **yeah**." Alucard grinned, eyes widening as he took on a more manic eagerness, "Thirty years without eating **anything**, I'm **hungry**."

Seras felt a little out of place, a third wheel as she watched the scene unfold, but she did not begrudge them this.

"I am…" Integra stated with a carefully bland tone to hide her feelings, "already an old grandma."

"That's fine with me." Alucard retorted, slit pupils focused solely upon his human Master.

Integra smiled, her graying hair fanning out dramatically as she lifted her right hand and bit her index finger with a grunt. She stood and strode over to the seated figure against the wall, raising her hand in the air over his head to allow the blood to drip down to him, "Welcome home, Count." She greeted, the smirk softening to a smile.

"I'm home, Countess." He replied, extending his tongue in a grinningly open mouth to catch the falling crimson.

Seras felt the childish urge to run away, but she repressed it savagely and stood silent as the Hellsing Leader fed a few drops of virgin blood to the vampire Alucard before turning away and returning to her bed, "Now get out. This old woman needs her sleep."

Seras grinned, and walked over to her Sire to offer him a hand up, "Welcome home, Master." She murmured, and he gave her a smile, one reserved just for her, as he accepted her hand and they phased from the room as a pair.

They appeared in her Master's chambers and his grin widened to a smirk as he sniffed the air rather blatantly. "Well, what a lovely home coming, hm, Police Girl?" He teased, releasing her to drop indolently into his throne and cross his legs at the knee.

"I missed you." Seras admitted and was unsurprised when he grabbed her around the waist and hauled her into his lap. He growled something unintelligible into her hair and nosed the collar of her shirt aside to sink his teeth into her throat with a groan.

She shivered and melted into his hold, head lolling to the side to offer further access to her pale throat. _Mmmm…_ He was renewing her original marks, as he did every time he partook of her blood.

The wet heat of his tongue running along her skin, lapping up the spilled remains of her blood made her tremble. "Did you think I would not notice your lingering scent in my coffin?" He breathed into her ear and tightened his grip on her waist.

"I missed you." She repeated as answer, feeling a bit dreamy headed and warm.

She could feel his grin against her skin as he pressed his face into her back. "I missed you as well, little fledgling, your voice is like fragments of a shattered melody. You, the only one who did not give up on my return."

Seras' lips quirked in an answering smile as she drifted into a half doze. "I knew you'd come back."

* * *

_**AN:** _Lithi told me to tease yooou~  
We're writing an epic story together. It will be **epic**, and probably not posted for forever. XD It won't see the light of the internet until it's completed.

_We'll add horribad tease-y snippets soon. ;)_


	30. What Do You Want?

_The Seldom Seen_

**_AN:_**Just a short little thing I felt inspired to write. Going to do my best to get another WCHB out tonight. *opens word doc*

* * *

_30: What Do You Want?_

Alucard was lounging at his desk, looking over some papers – a faintly irritated expression on his regal face, for it had been decades since he was forced to deal with the tedium of paperwork – when he heard a knock upon the door. Deciding to ignore it, he signed his name in a slash of his wrist, baring his teeth in pleasure at the stain of red on the white page.

The knock came again and he growled, but made no move to acknowledge the presence on the other side of the wood, uncaring who it was, only that if they dared disturb him a third time there would be hell to pay.

He almost forgot about the interruption into his time when he felt a ripple of power flare, and he jerked his head up to stare, amazed, at the tousled blond head of his Childe peeking into the room – through the door, no less – widened eyes narrowing in displeasure at her gall. "What do you want, Police Girl?" He snapped, and the girl flinched, drawing back a hair before entering the room with a pillow tucked under one arm and a blanket grasped in her hand, trailing on the bare stonework of the floor behind her like a lost puppy.

She said nothing, simply standing there, blue eyes stormy and glazed with drowsiness.

He sighed.

"Fine."

A grin crept up her pixie like features and she grabbed a footstool on her way over to the desk, setting it to the side as he turned obligingly and propped his feet on it, legs extended like a board. Within seconds she clambered up onto his lap and had arranged herself tp sprawl across him like a cat, spreading herself across his legs in a(n un)living blanket. He shook his head and rested one hand upon her head for a moment, playing with the fine strands of her sunshine yellow locks, an exasperated look on his face. Seras purred and one arm snaked around his waist, the other securing the pillow to his lap as she cuddled up to him.

He returned to his papers, a faint quirk of his lips ever present as the quiet of his study was filled with the steady hum of the slumbering girl's purr.

Seras liked to cuddle, and when he was too busy to stay in bed, she came to him. He couldn't find it in himself to stay mad at her over such trivial matters. (And, not that he'd ever admit it, but he liked it when she clung to him so. It made him feel wanted.)

He finished his work, and picked up his current favorite book, disinclined to move just yet.


	31. Target Practice

_The Seldom Seen_

_**AN:** _I'm back! Sorta. Am sick again. Boo. But I'm working on a lot of goodies to post in the future even if they don't update right away. Sorry about the delay in WCHB, muse is being picky. This little one shot actually went a lot differently in my head, but oh well, I think it works well enough. There's a surprise for you guys at the bottom!

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_31: Target Practice_

Seras Victoria woke drowsily, rubbing at her eyes blearily as she sat up, blinking to take in her surroundings. This…wasn't her room. "What?"

"Good, you're awake. It's time for some target practice." The dulcet tones of her Master's voice slipped into her ears like honey, and she fought back a shiver. Movement out of the corner of her eye made her react instinctively, and she grunted, nearly toppling under the weight of her cannon being thrown at her.

She blinked.

Her eyes widened as her sleep addled brain finally registered his words and she scrambled to her feet – noting with some relief that she wore her usual golden Hellsing uniform, though she distinctly remembered changing into her pjs before bed – swinging the Harkonnen up with ease onto her shoulder and turning in a quick circle to survey the room cautiously.

"Master?" She questioned, blue eyes flickering constantly from side to side, up and down, never staying in the same spot for long. Come to think of it… where was she? She didn't recognize the stone chamber, but it reminded her of the sub basement levels.

"Police Girl." His voice answered, echoing off the walls. She felt a strange tickle up the back of her neck, and pivoted on her heel to face a pair of rust red eyes peering at her from the wall. His smile appeared, like the Cheshire Cat, before it faded and the eyes vanished. "Your first task is to find me."

The red eyes appeared again and spread out like a swarm of ants, covering the walls and ceiling, and even a few on the floor. Seras bit back the urge to shriek as she was surrounded by burning ginger, some the size of footballs that bizarrely brought to mind the tale of cyclopses. This was really freaky!

Her eyes darted to all the different eyes, looking for some hint that one pair was specific to her Sire. She heard his chuckle, and disturbingly, all the eyes jiggled up and down with his mirth. Ugh. Taking a wild chance, she fired the cannon at a set near the ceiling, but they merely popped like balloons and the explosion made the room shudder.

"Tsk tsk, you can do better than that. Concentrate." He admonished, and she could swear she felt his breath on the back of her neck, but when she whirled around there was nothing there. Gritting her teeth, she tried closing her eyes for a moment to brush tentatively at the wall with her vampiric senses. She still wasn't that good at using these strange powers, being such a new undead, but she was learning.

That strange tickle raced up her spine and she turned – blindly – and fired. She heard him grunt in surprise as he appeared from the wall, and she felt a sick thrill rush through her when she noticed half his arm was missing.

"Very good."

Her nostrils flared and her pupils dilated as the scent of his blood trickled into her senses. He smirked and melted into the floor, his words no longer echoing about the room but inside her head. _**'Can you find me, Police Girl? Make sure to aim for the heart or the head.'**_ He added in a mocking coo, a phantom caress trailing across her cheek.

She shuddered, and her fingers clenched convulsively on the trigger of her massive gun before she reloaded in swift easy motions. She could _feel_ him in the walls, the floor, the ceiling… moving erratically with the occasional toss of rubble in her direction to tease her about her slow reaction time.

The smell of his blood flooded her being, drowning the world in red, yet enhancing it to the nth degree. She trembled.

The Harkonnen fell from nerveless fingers, and as the echo of it clattering to the stones reverberated in her skull, she lunged at the wall, landing in a gravity defying crouch as she slashed her hand into the stone, creating a massive divot it the grey rock. She missed.

Her pupils contracted to vertical slits as the blue darkened to the color of hot coals, her muscles tensing as her mind swept out with her senses to caress her surroundings. She lunged again, and shoved her arm through the wall with a crunch of protesting granite and a sickening squelch of parting flesh. Blood flowed down her arm, dripping off her elbow, and she laughed. Her more human self quaked and quivered as the vampire took sadistic glee in wounding her progenitor. She withdrew her hand from the gaping wound in the stones, and jumped in surprise as her Master's head tumbled through the opening to land on the floor, grinning sickly at her.

Oh god, she'd _decapitated_ him!

(itfeltmarvelous)

The head was facing her (heh, get it?) and she saw it wink. His lips moved and his voice crept into her mental ears like a purr. _**'Do you enjoy hurting me, Police Girl?'**_

She couldn't bring herself to answer.

(yesyesyesthebloodwasglorious )

His body phased out of the wall and bent down to pick up the missing portion of itself – she noticed his arm was back – and set it back on his shoulders, the neck reattaching seamlessly.

"Well, that was fun, hmm?"

Just as she was about to retort something rather childish, she heard a series of thuds on the ceiling and Sir Integra's voice shouted down at them quite crossly. "Enough! If your training your fledgling rocks this manor one more time I will stake you both out in the sun! No more firing explosives inside, do you hear me Alucard?"

The vampires gazed up at the stonework above with identical expressions of amusement, though Seras' quickly changed when she saw her Master looking. She wanted to huff and cross her arms over her chest, but her arm was still coated in blood – _his _ blood.

"Are we done, then, Master?"

"For now, Police Girl."

* * *

_**AN:** _As promised! The surprise. VanquishedLithium (my imaginary friend) and I are slowly working on a co-op piece. It won't be posted until it's 100% done, but here's a snippet for your torm-...enjoyment! Comments on both the TSS and collab snippet are welcome. :]

_"Police Girl, put Alucard on the phone." Sir Integra's voice floated up from the ear piece, and the blonde half turned, looking over her shoulder at the bat on her ceiling. Her brow arched silently, and as she watched, the wretched beast descended towards the floor, growing bigger with each flap of his membranous wings. He bared his teeth at her in a shark's grin as he extended his gloved hand towards her for the (hideously pink) cell phone. She rolled her right shoulder in a half shrug and handed the device over, dropping down into her chair to start her homework._  
_"Jealous, my Master?" Her Sire cooed into the phone, and Seras fought back the urge to snicker in response. She listened with half an ear as Integra spouted obscenities at the laughing man in her dorm room._  
_"Calm down, my Master." He interrupted when Seras could tell the woman had stopped to catch her breath, she had a faint worry that perhaps her Sire might drive the Hellsing to aneurism with how he loved to raise her blood pressure. "There is no need for me to be at Hellsing when there's nothing to do." He contnued in a lofty tone, sounding bored.  
__"BATS!" Seras heard that scream quite clearly, and the tip of her pencil snapped, she cursed and reached for a new one, cinnamon brown eyes (thanks to her contacts) dancing with badly concealed mirth. Oh, it wasn't funny, not really, but listening to Sir Integra berate the vampire tickled her pink.  
__"Bats would imply a plural." Alucard corrected mildly, also amused.  
__"And how does having a pet **vampire** bat help Victoria blend in?!" Integra hollered, and a smack sounded through the wires as the aged woman slapped her desk in aggrivation. Seras' rather joking worry was quickly losing its mirth, and she felt the ridiculous urge to portal over to the manor to ensure that Sir Integra took her blood pressure pillls and had a drink to calm her down._


	32. Who Ya Gonna Call?

The SeldomSeen

_**AN:**_This is pure silly. Blame Lithi! She gave me this idea... I forget how long ago. But I finished it! Just for your birthday. Don't you feel special? Four updates in one day! :O

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_32: Who Ya Gonna Call?_

Seras was used to a lot of weird stuff, being, yanno, a vampire. Cuz everyone knows vampires don't exist. But this..?

"You've got to be kidding me." She groaned, staring at the abandoned and desolate building before her, then down at the address written on her note pad.

"This is some kind of prank, right?"

Even as she asked herself this question, a brick levitated from the pile of scrap in the front yard and chucked itself at her knee.

Yelping, she clutched her leg where a human would have had a shattered kneecap, she just had a throbbing pain that faded in seconds. "What the hell?!" She barked, and ducked as the second brick flung itself at her head.

Faint laughter trickled into her ears mockingly as the front door swung open crookedly, nearly falling off its rusted hinges. Riiight… was she seriously going to do this? Apparently so.

Absently checking her handgun was still in its belt holster, she walked in and was completely unsurprised when the door slammed shut behin her. _It's a good thing I can see in the dark._ She thought scathingly as she nimbly skipped around the bunched up rug waiting to trip her up.

When she got to the center of the main foyer, she glanced around curiously, hands on hips, and head cocked to one side. "Cliché, much?"

Insubstantial hands shoved her, and she grunted in surprise, but instead of falling – into what she could suddenly tell was a pit – she leapt forward and landed on the other side, only to pivot on her heel and face… nothing. Growling, she shoved her hands in her pockets, then felt like smacking her palm into her face when her wrist brushed against the empty holster.

"Fuck."

**BANG!**

Yipping, she dove to the side, glancing over her shoulder to see the regulation pistol floating in mid air and tracking her. Diving behind the couch, she managed to catch the edge of the floorboard as the rest of her dropped into the hole she hadn't realized was there. Looking up, she saw the gun pointed right at her, and she bared her teeth in a grimace and let go.

She dropped, narrowly avoiding the second bullet, and landed in a crouch.

"This is **beyond** ridiculous!" She hissed as she cart-wheeled to the side as her ears caught the subtle click of the gun preparing to fire another shot.

Fortunately, the gen was not fully loaded, and the entity had not managed to grab her ammo refills. The now useless gun dropped and she watched with narrow eyes as the dust motes in the stagnant air stirred.

'_So, they sent a blonde bimbo after me? How pathetic.'_ A voice spoke, half inside her head, half in her ears. Her eye twitched.

'_Couldn't even send a __**real**__ vampire. How insulting.'_

Seriously? Fucking seriously?

"Hey, bub, I can hear you, yanno. A lot of people talk down to me because I don't drink the blood, but not a bloody ghost!" Seras started in a calm voice that raised swiftly into a snarl, and her blood teeth elongated in her rage, "You're the dead one, asshole!"

The half heard laughter returned, and Seras' fists clenched. Right. Fuck this.

Her darkness – admittedly no where near as dark or as blood soaked as her Sire's – swelled and rippled out in a wave. The distortion over by the crate of moldy smelling things cringed and became visible as a semi transparent figure; a scrawny stick figure of a man with a mean weasel like face.

He screeched and flung his arm at her, the crate beneath him lifting and flying towards the fledgling that was no longer there.

"You see, I don't believe in ghosts." Seras continued, "So I think I need to do something to correct that."

She grinned, and if the dead could feel fear, she was sure he would have. Her shadows pooled to the surface of her skin like a glove, and grew claws. She leapt at the suddenly fleeing figure and sliced through him with ease. His form wavered and shrank as pieces of his incorporeal form were ripped from his lingering consciousness.

He screamed, a high thin sound that brought to mind the stories of banshees she'd read about. Her grin widened. He tried to levitate up to the ceiling back through the hole she'd dropped in from, but Seras was expecting that. She was suddenly _there_, in front of him, above him, and her arm swung down in a vicious arc. It felt like running her hand through steam, or mist, but it was bitterly cold. The scream came again, but was cut off abruptly as the half seen figure dissipated completely.

"There, no more ghost. Nothing left to not believe in."

Finding her gun, she picked it up, and grimaced at the clear slime around the handle, wiping it on sold old dust cloths before tucking it back in her belt.

"That was the stupidest mission ever. I'm never doing this again."

_Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!_


	33. Gotta Catch 'Em All

The Seldom Seen

_**AN:**_This is even more full of silly and fun. DON'TKILLME.  
_And because I need to... Though it''s obvious. Neither Pokemon nor Hellsing or anything owned by real people belongs to me. I'm just a twenty something year old still living at home with her parents writing this for shits and giggles. So don't bother trying to sue, I don't own a dime._

* * *

_33: Gotta Catch 'Em All_

A very, very little known fact is that Seras Victoria likes video games, specifically, the videogame she got for her birthday shortly before the _incident_. Pokemon. She was curled up in her four poster coffin-bed with her old gameboy, replaying Red for the umpteenth time. True, the graphics were crap compared to games now a days, and the handheld was a clunky thing, but she still loved it.

Grinning to herself, she has her character – named Pip, because she couldn't think of anything better – throw a poke'ball and… yes! She caught Zubat! Smirking, she taps the direction and A buttons until it spells out 'Alucard'.

She giggles as she looks at her Meowth – a level 100 that she had continued to trade to each game no matter how disobedient, it was her oldest 'mon – named Seras. She usually beat the Elite Four single handedly with her precious kitty, but this time she thought she'd try to get her Golbat up to par and circulate the two of them around as a pair from now on. Glancing briefly at the box that held her trading cable and the gameboy color – a purple clear one – to ensure it hadn't somehow slipped off the bed or lost any of its precious contents, she debates finding a Mankey and naming it Integra…

Biting her lip to stifle her giggles further, Seras loses herself in the game until dawn.

_Seras woke groggily, stretching and yawning widely. She was tired. Glancing around her curiously, she blinked as she realized she was in a forest in daylight. Huh, how odd. Getting to her feet, it took her a moment to realize that she wasn't standing on her (hind)legs, but on all fours. What?_

_Lifting her hand to her face, she blinked in shock to see cream colored fur and wicked looking white claws. A suspicion formed in her mind and she glanced down lower still to see brown tipped feet at her back half. Okay, this was getting really weird._

_She opened her mouth to call out to her surroundings, but no words came, instead she meowed. Crap, she knew what she was with no doubt now._

"_Meoooowth!"_

_A loud screech drew her gaze to the trees, and she hissed as she saw a dark blue and purple blur flying right at her. Leaping to the side, she yowled as her tail tip was captured in the sightless bat's open maw._

_Fangs buried themselves in her skin and she stumbled as she felt the life draining out of her back legs. Leech Life wasn't supposed to do that much damage!_

_Turning, she swiped her claws at the Zubat's wings in a vicious Fury Swipes until it let go and her tail drooped limply to the forest floor._

"_Good, Zubat, use Wing Attack!" A voice called suddenly from the trees and Seras tensed as she recognized that alluring accent._

_The bat, blood dripping from its tattered wing, flew up out of reach before beating its wings until they began to glow white, then it dove for her and she couldn't get out of the way quickly enough. She went flying into a tree and blacked out._

_The next thing she knew, she was being petted by large hands, draped limply over a warm lap. "Ah, mignonette, I think I shall name you Seras." He crooned, and scratched behind her ears. Despite herself, she purred._

"_I hope monsieur Alucard did not hurt you too badly, I would not like us to start on the bad foot." He chuckled, and she glanced up to see the Zubat perched on the red head's shoulder, eyeless face turned down to her rather creepily. Her blood still marked one of his teeth. She shuddered._

_Alucard snapped his teeth in her direction and she drew back, ears furled flat to her skull. A voice oozed into her head, then, and she nearly had a heart attack. _**'You're pathetic. Not even a set of wings. What sort of vampire do you hope to be, little kitten?'**

Seras woke with a start and swore blackly to herself. "That's it, no more playing pokemon until dawn."

Her Master's laugher echoed mockingly in her head, and she groaned. Oh great, had he seen her dream? Marvelous, fan-bloody-tastic.

'_**Vampires that enjoy playing children's games. How amusing.'**_

'_**Master...!'**_ Seras protested, hiding her face in her hands. He'd never let her live this one down. Never!

'_**Damn straight I wont.'**_

* * *

_**AN: **_Guess what? You get another snippet from my collab story with Lithi! This _probably_ ends my updates for Lithi's birthday. I might get one more something out before bed. No promises. On to the snippet!

* * *

_'Then it's true?' She hissed back at him, this time keeping her clenching fists in her lap to avoid further destruction of school property. The acid taste returned to her tongue, thick and choking._

_'Now, now, I never said that.' He mocked, taunting her with the unsaid words of 'I never denied it either' that she could practically taste on his lips._

_'Is it?' She demanded tersley. Eyes blazing. (God, what was wrong with her?)_

_'Your eyes are so beautiful when they burn with rage, Police Girl. It's a shame you've covered them with those contacts.' He crooned, ignoring her question completely and running phantom fingers through her hair._

_If she were not in a room full of ignorant mortals, she would have jerked her head up and snapped her teeth at his incorporeal hand, hoping to draw phantom blood. She grit her teeth, and winced as the elongated daggers of her blood teeth sawed into her lower lip._

_'Drink it.' He hissed viciously into her head then as the blood welled up in her mouth. His mind beat against hers, crushing her will with his. (Did the last thirty years mean nothing?) She wanted to refuse._

_He snarled and she felt an insubstantial hand clamp around her chin, jerking her head up awkwardly while the other settled around her waist possessively. She shuddered, and swallowed the sweet-sour taste of her own blood, eyes fluttering shut._

_'Yesss...' His hiss tore her from her trance and she opened her eyes hurriedly to pretend at paying attention, though by now it was a lost cause. She might need to do a mass mind fucking to keep her cover if her Sire kept up his agressive interactions. (To be fair, she had done most of the acting out herself.)_


	34. Boogieman

The Seldom Seen

_**AN:**_I... Have no idea how this idea went so weird. It made more sense in my head. OH WELL! Still technically a birthday update for Lithi even though it's past midnight. This is pretty random, but not as far out there as the previous two. XD

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_34:Boogieman_

Seras Victoria sat at Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing's bedside, a faintly concerned look on her eternally youthful face. Her Master had been gone for twenty years on this day, and the Lady Hellsing was laid up with a nasty cold. The Draculina worried that the remaining FREAKS might try to attack – not that she had any doubts to her ability to handle it, but that the stress might make the woman take a turn for the worse.

"Did I ever tell you…" Integra wheezed a bit, her lungs not what they used to be with her years of chain smoking, the sickness not helping, "About how I met your Master?" She asked, a nostalgic look upon her – only slightly – wrinkled face. (Really, it was just the corners of her eyes and the slightly deeper line around her mouth. Seras blamed the stress.)

Seras nodded. "Once or twice." She admitted easily, blonde hair sliding into her cherry red eyes.

"Mmm…" Integra hummed, her eyes unfocused and glassy. "I had nightmares for a month straight until they stopped." Seras made an encouraging noise for the woman to continue, fascinated.

"It was…"

_A cliché dark and stormy night, not that Integra was scared of the dark. What reason had she to be frightened of it? No, it was the things __**inside**__ the dark that made shivers creep down her spine. She shifted uncomfortably in her bed, feeling the urge to draw her knees to her chest to prevent some unseen goblin from biting her toes off._

'_This is stupid.' She scolded herself, glasses reflecting the sudden flash of a lightning strike illuminating her room. Shadows danced and she tugged the blankets higher up her chest. 'Just go to sleep, get it over with. You have lessons in the morning.'_

_The young girl sighed, and placed the oval spectacles on her bedside table, slumping into her pillows and attempting to force herself to sleep._

_She woke two hours later, screaming. The scream was muffled by the clap of thunder, which she was thankful for. The last thing she needed was Walter bursting into her room, ready to assault some unknown assailant. Her nightmare was the same every night, Walter ignoring her pleas that she didn't want to be alone with her Uncle, that he was acting strange, leaving her there while he underwent one last mission in her departed father's name. She had taken refuge in the air ducts shortly after, sleeping in them and sneaking food from the kitchens only when she knew no one was around. This continued for a handful of days until she heard of mention of them from one of the men hired to find her. She had no choice but to seek protection elsewhere, remembering her father's last words. "Integra. If it should ever come to it, if the situation is critical. If you've ever been cornered by the enemy and there's nothing else you can do… go to the long forgotten jail in the basement. One of the legacies of our Hellsing family is there. A means for your protection."_

_When she got there, it was empty. She felt as though something were desperately wrong, but had no time to turn around and try a different door, for her Uncle was there, grinning at her sickly as he raised his gun._

"_Hellsing is __**mine**__!" He shouted, and her world exploded in fire._

_Walter had left her. Alucard wasn't there. She died each night in her dreams._

_She stiffened as she felt an unholy presence ooze into her room, jerking her head up to stare into burning crimson eyes. To her credit she did not flinch._

"_Frightened of the boogieman, my Master?" He crooned in that deep voice of his, amused. She glared at him with icy blues, clenching her hands into fists. "Don't be ridiculous, vampire!" She snapped._

"_Spunky." He leered at her, before bowing with a dramatic flair. "As you say, my Master."_

_Strangely, she felt safer with her pet monster in her room. She sighed and lifted herself in the bed to rest her back against the headboard. "What do you want?" She asked in a 'grown up' sort of voice._

_He chuckled softly under his breath, and extended his hand as if to touch her. She inched back, though no fear showed in her gaze._

_His smirk softened the slightest tinge, but was replaced by what she had come to associate with his usual maniacism. "I could taste your fear from the basement, my Master." He informed her, gazing at her intently. He inhaled and sighed appreciatively. _

_Integra glared at him, "If you're only here to mock me then get out!" She snapped, flinging her hand towards the door. She was in no mood to deal with him for a power struggle._

_The Hellsing's tamed vampire grinned at her before bowing and melting away, "As you wish, my Master. Pleasant dreams."_

_When she fell back into her uneasy dreams they had changed. A shapeless creature with her uncle's cold eyes chased her down a hallway. When she reached the end, she turned to face the shadow, when Alucard stepped out of nowhere to stand between her and the menacing figure._

"_So, you're Integra's boogieman?" He sneered, and the girl watched with wide eyes as he stepped up to the creature. Her pet vampire tore a section off of the thing, and shadow blood oozed onto the stone floor, a sour smell of old sweat filled the air. The thing screamed, and the not-sound made her skull throb._

_Their eyes met for a moment, and the scream became a single word in her uncle's voice. 'Frauline.'_

_Alucard picked the boogieman up and his jaw opened to inhuman proportions as he shoved the mass of shadow down his greedy throat._

_When Integra woke again it was dawn, and no fear sweat dampened her skin. She felt oddly relieved._

"I never got him to tell me if he did something to me that night, but ever after I've yet to have a nightmare that I can remember."

Seras raised a hand to the woman's forehead and found it burning hot. Christ! She was running a high fever. She wasn't sure how much of that was truth or a fever addled hallucination.

She made some sort of agreeable noise and hopped to her feet to get a damp washcloth to dab at the woman's brow. If her temperature didn't go down by morning Seras would escort her to the hospital personally.

The thought of her Master, Alucard, eating the boogieman tickled her pink, and she liked to think that it was true in a way. He was a monster, everyone knew that, but even monsters had their nice sides at times.


	35. Violence Is Contagious

The Seldom Seen

_**AN: WARNING! Violence.**_Because I was feeling down for no reason. My cure? Beating Seras into paste. :D

* * *

_34: Violence Is Contagious_

Seras yipped and flung herself backwards as her Master swung at her with one powerful arm. Her eyes widened and she felt her left arm ripple, but she pushed it back as she landed nimbly on the tips of her combat boots, leaping to the left as a shadow tendril whipped at her, but the second one knocked her legs out from under her and she landed with a thud. "Mmph!" She grunted, tasting blood in her mouth from biting her lip.

The tendril that tripped her wrapped around her right ankle and tightened before flinging her into the wall. Her arm dissolved into a mass of shadows that cushioned the impact, one section moving down her body to sever the tether, and she melted into the stones a split second later. Blood, hot and wet, oozed down her ankle to dampen her sock before it was mostly reabsorbed as her wound healed, but the scent of blood was rich in the air and she cursed.

A presence loomed behind her, and before she could react properly, her right arm was twisted backwards, her wrist nearly level with her neck. _Fuck!_ Her shadow arm reached back to push him away, and he retaliated by dislocating her shoulder. She whimpered.

Swallowing the cries of pain trying to climb up her throat, her shadows whipped at Alucard, battering him with their unnaturally sharp edges. He tightened his hold on her wrist and she felt his talons dig into flesh, lubricating her skin with crimson dye. That gave her an idea and quick as a flash she lifted her feet up tp plant them on his thighs, flipping herself and jerking free with the aid of her blood slick skin, facing him with a cocky smirk.

He grinned at her, and backhanded her to the floor, but she had anticipated that and melted once more into the stones, her shadows bringing him down with her. She felt the impact and was surprised he hadn't caught himself.

She fled deeper into the lower levels of the manor, knowing it was only a matter of time before he found her.

The shadows writhing around her pulled slowly together and congealed into a single black mass that she concentrated upon until it regained the peachy tone of skin and took on the appearance of her left arm once more. She gritted her teeth and used her reformed hand to pop her shoulder back into place.

'_Behind you.'_ A half forgotten voice whispered in her head and she rolled to the side just in time to avoid getting caught between Baskerville's jaws. "Hey!" She shouted at the walls, growling in aggravation at the lack of response. The hound's form rippled and sprouted two more heads so that she faced a six eyed (or would that be eighteen?) Cerberus. "Oh fuck you." She snarled at her Master, flipping backwards to land briefly on the wall, vaulting herself up and through the ceiling… and right into his arms.

He smirked down at her before wrenching her arms back, and holding her wrists as he used them to swing her into the floor. He ground his knee into her spine and leaned down to breathe on the back of her neck teasingly. "Do you give?"

"Yeah, sure, I give. I give you a bent dick." She sneered, using her unnatural vampiric flexibility to swing her foot up and back straight into his groin. He grunted mildly in discomfort, and in another of those 'fuck you, that's how' moves he had her face planting the wall, hands and feet touching as he held them at awkward angles.

"Hilarious." He drawled, hiking her legs up higher until she gasped. "I could roll you like a bowling ball." He announced with an air of gleeful menace. She groaned as she felt the cold film of his shadows tie her limbs in place, and the support of the wall vanished to leave her dangling like that painfully. The dangling only lasted a moment as he shifted his hold on her to toss her across the room. She bounced a few times, on the first impact, her collarbone cracked, on the second, her femur snapped, the third she thought her vertebrae might have slipped out of place, and the fourth attempted to turn her nose inside out. The fifth and final impact was with the wall and her neck broke. She gurgled painfully around the blood flooding the back of her throat.

Seconds – minutes, hours, days? Her mind was drowning in an overload of raw nerve endings and it distorted the flow of time terribly – later the bonds holding her in the vaguely ball like shape vanished and dimly she knew that her arms and legs flopped limply to the floor. She heard the _click_ and _crack_ of bones being slid back into place, and faintly felt the warmth and pressure of her Sire's hands upon her, realigning her body even as her healing took effect.

A floating sensation made her whine low in her throat as her senses reeled crazily before the world settled back into its proper place. A deep chuckle vibrated through her very bones and she sighed. "Fine, I concede already. I never signed up for this kind of foreplay, you know." She grumbled, and his laughter turned wicked as he hand supporting her upper back moved to cup her right breast teasingly.

"Keep that attitude up and I'll go through with my threat to whip you before bed, dear." He whispered in her ear, and she shivered. Her toes curled at the thought and she bit her lip to hold back a moan.

She was _so_ screwed.


	36. Shadows In The Dark

The Seldom Seen

_**...No comment...**_

* * *

_36: Shadows In The Dark_

Alucard roused as he felt a presence in his chambers, the familiarity of it, however, gave little incentive to get up. Just as he thought, seconds later, his Childe poked her head through the lid of the coffin – he had his eyes closed, but he could _feel_ her there – and she crawled in next to him without a word. She pressed herself up to his side, stretching her deliciously long – and bare – legs along his until her toes rested against his shins and nestled her shoulder into his armpit to pillow her cheek on his chest. His lips twitched mildly and his arm curled to rest a possessive hand on her hip.

She mumbled something unintelligible into the fabric of his unbuttoned white shirt and threw her arm out to splay her hand along his bare chest. His muscles clenched reflexively and rippled beneath her fingers, he could feel her smile as she settled and drifted away to sleep.

Foolish girl.

His quirked lips transformed into a full on smirk, though it was not malicious. He peered down at her blonde head from betwixt his sooty lashes and his gloved hand tightened around her waist.

He dozed lightly as the sun rose, but woke every few hours as the voices of the dead inside his head clamored for his attention. He had no desire to heed their pathetic whining, they were dead, and belonged to him now. His Childe was still there.

Grinning mischievously he decided to have a little fun with her and test how much she would pass off as his 'tossing and turning'. He rolled first onto his side, dislodging her from her niche, which roused the girl as well. He heard her sleepy whine, and took the opportunity to crush her against the wall of his coffin, planting his face into the side of her neck. She grunted and squirmed, so he retaliated by licking the skin there and delighting in her little whine of protest.

He felt her thoughts stretch out to probe his, and kept his mind carefully blank with a vague sense of dreaming. She withdrew quickly and began to push lightly at his shoulders with her small hands, it made no difference. He suckled on the skin there, so tantalizingly exposed to his lips and teeth, and she moaned.

"Masterrr…" She hissed and tensed before shoving him hard enough to roll them both, he quickly rolled them again and pinned her beneath him. He had to fight the urge not to smirk and give himself away as he found himself situated between her legs – quite comfortably – with her breasts crushed quite pleasantly to his chest. He nipped her and she moaned again, hips bucking before she froze and cursed under her breath.

He was enjoying himself far too much to give the game up now.

His hands rose from her hips to caress the sides of her breasts before resting on her shoulders, where he proceeded to nip her again. "Master!" She yelped, though keeping her voice pitched low, as if afraid to wake him. How amusing. Didn't she want him to 'wake up'?

He felt her powers gathering close to her skin and growled, she stopped and lay still beneath him. He rewarded her obedience by nuzzling her neck and working his way up behind her ear. She mewled and trembled slightly, but not from fear, he noted.

Smugly, he lightly thrust his hips into hers and was pleased by her gasping inhalation. Her hands moved, first to his shoulders to push lightly before splaying out to map his back with curious fingers. Pleased, he repeated the roll of his hips, and ran his tongue along the shell of her ear.

"Master, are you asleep?" She asked hesitantly, fingers clenching in the silky fabric of his shirt. He did not respond.

'_I've heard of sleep walking, but sleep molesting?'_ The girl thought ruefully, and it was only his years of experience that kept him from ruining his game and laughing at her naïveté.

He decided to push it just a little further.

He moaned her name and thrust his hips harder against her.

She froze.

"Master! God damnit, I'm not sleeping with you anymore if you're going to do this!" Seras shrieked and he cringed inwardly at the shrill tones, but masked it with a perverse chuckle. "No? We'll see about that. Now… where was I?"


	37. Marble Drop (p1)

The Seldom Seen

_**Neko:**_Me 1, Jubali 1. Woo, we're tied.  
For now.

This is a **three shot**, and following the Labyrinth storyline with my own little twists, more evident in parts two and three. Have fun! Oh, and whoever guesses who Walter, Ludo, and Sir Didymous will be correctly get a cookie and a mention. ;)

* * *

_37: Marble Drop_

"_How you turn my world you precious thing."_

_**Sip.**_

"_You starve and near exhaust me."_

_**Gulp.**_

_"Everything I have done, I have done for you!"_

_**Sluuurp.**_

Red swept up through the ridiculous loops of the curly straw, crawling higher and higher until it reached the lips pursed around the opening, where it disappeared into the greedy mouth beyond. Blue eyes stared, captivated, at the large screen tv she had claimed in the last few hours before dawn.

"_I move the stars for no one."_ She echoed in time with the movie, lips stained crimson. Her pink tongue flicked out to capture the residue, the blue of her eyes deepening, minute red flecks appearing in her irises.

"_You've run so long you've run so far."_

She always did love the part when he was walking upside down. She grinned.

"_Your eyes can be so cruel."_ And his _smirk_… she loved it almost as much as his pants. Mmm… Jareth's pants… _"Just as I can be so cruel."_

Her eyes followed the crystal's path as it bounced upwards towards the baby in the candysripe onesie.

"_Though I do believe in you. Yes I do"_

She was in a war with herself what she loved the most about him; his eyes, his voice, his hair, his _pants_…

"_Live without your sunlight. Love without your heartbeat. I-I can't live within you."_ She sniffled a bit, sympathizing. He looked so sad. She had a love-hate relationship with what came next.

_"Give me the child."_

"_Sarah, beware, I have been generous up until now, but I can be cruel."_

" _Generous? What have you done that is generous?"_

"_Everything! Everything you wanted I have done. You asked that the child be taken, I took him. You cowered before me, I was frightening. I have reordered time. I have turned the world upside down and I have done it all for you! I am exhausted from living up to your expectations. Isn't that generous?"_

Seras sighed, watching his eyes. She felt so sorry for him.

"_Through dangers untold, and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City. For my will is as strong as yours, and my King-"_

"_Stop! Wait. Look Sarah, look at what I am offering." _Seras' lips suctioned back to the tip of the straw, unwilling to look away, mesmerized by the glimpse of the dream crystal.

"_Your dreams!"_

"_-and my Kingdom as great."_

"_I ask for so little. Just let me rule you, and you can have everything that you want."_

"_Kingdom as great..."_ Seras crinkled her nose. She was so torn between wanting Sarah to succeed, and, yet, Jareth… _"Kingdom as great... Damn, I can never remember that line."_

"_Just fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave!"_

"_My kingdom as great, my kingdom as great…"_

Seras moaned under her breath, "No, you fool! He loves you!"

"_You have no power over me."_

"Nooo…" Sighing, she swallowed the last gulp of her blood and watched sadly as Jareth transformed into an owl. He was so sad.

"You threw it all away, Sarah. You fool."

She set the cup to the side as she stood up, stretching while the last of the movie played out. She began to hum along with Jareth's last words leading to the end credits, _you remind me of the babe._

Turning to the door after putting the disc away in its case, she ran face first into a quite familiar chest. "Hello Master." She quipped, lips twitching. He grinned down at her, a shark's leer, and leaned down to thoroughly invade her personal space.

"That's the fifth time I've caught you watching that movie, Police Girl. One might think you were… obsessed." His yellow lenses slid down a fraction so that she caught a glimpse of his eyes, and fought hard not to shiver.

"It's my favorite movie." She informed him loftily, slipping sideways neatly to dance around him and resume her trek to the kitchen to wash out her cup and straw – Walter got mad if she forgot it and let it congeal – before bed.

"Indeed." He drawled. "It wouldn't happen to have something to do with… how did you phrase it? _'God like pants'_?"

She felt her cheeks flushing and refused to look at him as he trailed behind her casually.

"I didn't realize you had a taste for leather, Police Girl." He purred in her ear and she froze as she felt him press up against her. She faltered a moment before resolutely turning on the sink.

When she finally gave in to the inevitable and turned around, she had to swallow multiple times to keep from drooling. _Oh god…_

Her Master was wearing black – skin tight – leather and _ohmygodyes_ she couldn't tear her eyes away.

His teeth gleamed in the light of the kitchen as he leaned into her face, lips almost touching, "Everything I have done, I have done for you." He mocked, and she was hard pressed not to lean forward and connect their mouths in a kiss.

She shivered, and felt her knees go weak, so she leaned back to support herself with the counter. "Isn't that generous?" He cooed, in that deep voice of his, and her toes curled.

She licked her lips nervously, and saw his eyes track the movement. Quite suddenly she wasn't so confident she could get out of this encounter without something changing between them.

Ever the coward, Seras allowed herself to fall backwards and phase through wood and stone, fleeing into the sub levels of the manor and her room.

Ghostly laughter followed her, taunting her.

* * *

Seras had the oddest feeling, before she opened her eyes, that she was an actor in a play, waiting for the curtain to rise…

Shaking her head, the blonde called out the words she knew by heart into the humid air of the park; "Through dangers untold, and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the Castle Beyond the Goblin City, to take back the child that you have stolen."

Thunder rumbled, and she glanced up at the clouds frowning before the central clock started to chime. "Oh no…" Her sheep dog, Harkonnen barked, and she hot footed it over to him, "It's seven o'clock! Zorin's going to kill me! C'mon boy!"

Tucking her home made dress up into her pants to look more like a too-long shirt, the blonde and her dog ran for home, only to have the sky open up and begin to rain down on them.

"Seras!" Her step mother called from the porch as they approached, "Where have you been? Do you realize how late it is?" Seras grimaced, and hopped up the steps, "I know, I know, I lost track of time." Harkonnen began to follow but Zorin aimed a kick at him, "No, you sleep in the garage."

"But it's cold, and he's wet!" Seras protested for her dog, frustration clear in her voice.

"I said no, now get inside, both of you." Zorin sneered, and Harkonnen whined pitifully before plodding obediently to his doggy door to the garage, Seras told herself she'd go towel the poor mutt off when her dad and step mother left. Storming up the stairs angrily, she passed her father, dripping wet and leaving puddles on Zorin's nice clean floors.

"Seras, there you are! We were getting worried. We need you to watch Integra so we can go out tonight." Her dad spoke, following behind her a few steps and carrying her baby sister in his arms dressed in a blue and white candy striped onesie.

Seras slammed her door with a shriek of 'I can't do anything right', and flounced into her chair at the vanity table, staring at her mussed reflection in the mirror.

Sighing, she picked up her favorite lipstick tube, playing with it and smiling fondly. It was her Mother's, before she ran off to pursue her acting career. Her smile faltered and she frowned, tossing it down to the cluttered space and knocking one of her figurines over – an ebony hound with red eyes, snarling at the viewer (Zorin hated that statuette) – she was about to pick it up when a knocking came at her door. "Seras?" Her father called, "We're going."

"Yeah, whatever." She muttered, yanking her dress-shirt off to pull on some dry clothes. She heard the car start, and dropped onto her bed, scowling. Looking up at her shelf, she saw an empty space in her cubbies, "Lancelot… Someone's been in my room again, I hate that!"

Storming down the hall, she flipped the curtain aside from the master bedroom to stare down at the crib where Integra lay with the bear in question. Snatching the plush back, she winced as the baby began to cry.

Picking Integra up, she bounced her in mid air and patted her back, but nothing worked, "Oh why won't you stop crying? Do you want a bed time story? Fine!" Putting the baby back in the crib she took a dramatic pose, and began to recite the story.

"Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young girl. Whose stepmother always made her stay home with the baby," She began slowly, "The baby was a spoiled child, and wanted everything for herself.. and the young girl was practically a slave. But what no one knew, was that the King of the Goblins had fallen in love with the girl, and given her certain powers," She emphasized this sentence, not too sure why, "So one night.. When the baby had been particularly cruel to her.. she called on the Goblins for help. _"Say your right words," _the Goblins said, _"and we'll take the baby to the Goblin City.. and you will be free."_ But the girl knew, that the King of the Goblins would keep the baby in his castle forever and ever and ever.. and turn it into a Goblin. And so the girl suffered in silence, until one night when she was tired from a day of house work, and she was hurt by the harsh words of her step mother, and she could no longer stand it…"

Integra was still crying, and Seras sighed, "All right, all right, knock it off." Picking her half sister up, she leaned the babe against her shoulder and patted her back, hoping to make her stop.

She didn't.

Frustrated, she jostled her some more, hoping it would work, "Stop it, stop it! I'll say the words." Staring down at the crinkled face of the blue eyed babe she sighed, "No, I musn't. I musn't say… I wish. I wish…"

As though an expectant hush fell upon the imaginary stage, she held the baby up, and spoke louder over the sudden rumble of thunder. "I can bare it no longer! Goblin King, Goblin King, where ever you may be, take this child of mine far away from me!"

Nothing happened, though she knew it wouldn't. Integra continued to cry and she groaned, holding her sister closer, "Oh Integra, stop it! I wish I did know what to say to make the goblins take you away."

As though some strange force had heard her, she thought she heard words being whispered in her head; _I wish the goblins would come and take you away right now!_

"I wish… I wish…"

Tucking the still crying baby into her crib, Seras walked across the room to stand by the curtained door, hovering by the light switch. "I wish the goblins **would** come and take you away." Flicking the lights off, she finished with the last words and turned away, "Right now." When she stepped out into the hallway the crying abruptly stopped and she froze. Turning back warily, she stepped back into the room, "Integra? Integra, are you all right?" Silence. She flicked the switch, but the lights stayed off. Jiggling it up and down further, she frowned, that sense of unease growing, "Why aren't you crying?" She demanded of the lump under the blankets. It twitched and made rather disturbing noises and she jumped, taking bigger steps over to reach for the blanket, hovering at the last second before flinging it up and finding… nothing.

Lightning flashed in the room and she saw strange little creatures scurrying around in the flickering shadows, and something slammed into the glass of the balcony door. She jumped and saw a red eyed bat trying to force the glass to let him through. More shadows scampered and she saw movement under the quilt, and she clutched the side of her arm as she tried to keep track of what was happening. The doors blew open abruptly and the bat flew at her face, she shrieked and tried to swat it away, and it flew back towards the doors where she lost sight of it until more lightning flashed and she observed with horrified fascination as the shadow grew and stretched into a humanoid shape.

She looked up then, to see the curtains billowing around a tall, threatening figure clad in red and black. Black knee high riding boots, dark grey slacks, and vest, a white undershirt, all topped with a nearly floor length crimson trench coat, a matching cravat, and a wide brimmed fedora. Enticingly scruffy black hair splayed out around his head, drawing her gaze to the mesmerizing red eyes with the slit pupils. She felt a shiver roll down her spine as she got lost in those eyes.

"You're him, aren't you? You're the Goblin King." Even as she asked it, she knew it was a stupid question. He tilted his head as the words spilled from her mouth, and his lips twitched upward to show the barest hint of what might be a too-long canine tooth. He needed no verbal reply.

"I'd like my little sister back if it's all the same to you." She spoke, voice showing a hint of her nerves.

"What's said is said." He intoned gravely, crossing his arms. She shivered, he looked so intimidating, but she had to try.

"Give me my sister back." Seras demanded, "Where is he?"

"You know very well where she is."

She froze at the sound of his voice, so deep, and sensual, "Please give her back, please."

He shook his head, "Seras, go back to your room, play with your toys and your costumes. Forget about the baby."

"I can't, don't you see that I can't?" Seras demanded, hands clenching at her sides.

He held up his hand and a crystal appeared, balancing on the tips of his fingers. "I've brought you a gift."

"What is it?"

"It's a crystal. Nothing more."

He began to flip the crystal, rolling along the backs of his fingers on both hands, "But if you turn it this way, and look into it, it will show you your dreams."

Seras' eyes followed the moving crystal, hypnotized.

"Do you want it?" He prompted, something dangerous in his tone.

"It's not a gift for an ordinary girl who stays home and takes care of the baby."

"Its not that I don't appreciate what you're trying to do for me, but I have to have my sister back."

He snarled, "Don't defy me, Seras."

The crystal melted into the form of a snake, and he threw it at her. She screamed and flung it from her neck, the scales morphing once more into the form of a scarf, and as she dropped it, some strange deformed creature sneered at her before skittering off.

"You're no match for me Seras." He growled, though not entirely unkindly.

"But I have to have my sister back!" Seras protested, trying to ignore the mocking laughter of the distorted faces leering at her from the shadows.

"She's there, in my castle." He pointed, and quite suddenly the thunder stopped and a strange reddish light filtered through the open balcony doors.

" Do you still want to look for her?"

She stepped through, and then the door to the bedroom was gone, they were left there on a hilltop staring at the maze. "Is that the Castle Beyond the GoblinCity?" She asked, gazing at the shape looming in the distance.

He stepped up to her, and she jumped when she felt his lips brush her ear, "Turn back Seras, turn back before it's too late."

She moved away from him a step, unnerved, and yet longing to step into his arms instead, "I can't, don't you understand that I can't?"

"What a pity." He crooned, a strange look on his face she couldn't decipher.

"It doesn't look that far." She said hopefully.

"It's further then you think." He grinned ferally, and the reddish light of the sky made his smile look bloody.

"Time is short." He turned and pointed to a clock that appeared, hanging on a tree. "You have thirteen hours in which to solve the Labyrinth, before your baby sister becomes one of us, forever."

He laughed and faded from view like a ghost. "Such a pity."


	38. Marble Madness (p2)

The Seldom Seen

_**Neko:**_Everyone should thank Lithi for being the Quote Queen, and also the holder of the pointy stick of motivation. Part two would be longer, but I'm exhausted, and wanted to get this posted tonight to keep my score even with Ju Jui.  
So part three will just be ridiculously long to make up for it. Or maybe it'll be four parts, I dunno. Either way, I GO TO SLEEP NOW. *heartsymbol*

* * *

_38: Marble Madness_

Seras rubbed the backs of her arms, and squared her shoulders. "C'mon feet, let's get going." She trotted her way down the desolate hill, approaching the imposing Labyrinth walls. She didn't see any sign of a door yet, and she frowned. Movement out of the corner of her eye drew her attention to a squat little man pumping something that looked like a weed killer at the wild roses climbing the stone sides. Something dropped, and he croaked out a "Fifty" before shuffling sideways and repeating the motion. Curious, she stepped closer, and gasped as she realized he was spraying fairies. "That's horrible!"

The little man – dressed a bit like a dispossessed butler, sputtered and turned on her with the sprayer at the ready, "No it ain't!" As if realizing his grammatical mistake, he cleared his throat, "As royal gardener, it is my duty to spray these nasty little fairies, my name is Walter." He made no move to shake her hand or anything, and, in fact, turned on a dime and sprayed another fairy that gasped and staggered in mid air. Seras caught the little thing, and yelped when it bit her. Walter coughed to hide a laugh, bur she saw through it.

Seras scowled. "Do you know how to get to the Castle Beyond the Goblin City?"

"Now why would I know a thing like that? Fifty five!" He crowed as another went down.

"Stop that!" Seras cried. "How do I get into the Labyrinth?"

'_Say your right words', the goblins said._

He straightened, and turned to actually look at her. She saw he had a rather lumpy and misshapen face, but the monocle only added to his charm, he did, indeed, look like a butler that was forced to turn gardener. "That's easy. You go through the door." And just like that, there was a door. He knocked thrice and told it to 'open up'.

"But I warn you, the Labyrinth is no place for a girl. You should turn back now." He sounded grave, and his face was set in stone.

"But I have to."

"Suit yourself, but don't say I didn't warn you." Walter turned and walked back outside the door, which, to her alarm, closed behind him.

Seras frowned, and looked left, then right. "Which way..?"

Taking a chance, she darted to the right, leaping over the protruding roots and fallen stones in her way. This path sucked! And… why did it seem to never end? "What kind of maze only goes straight?" She panted after a good ten minutes or more of non stop running. Leaning against a wall, she slumped to the floor, gasping for breath.

"Guten Tag Fraulein" A voice called, and she looked around. She saw nothing but a beige worm with a golden afro and glasses.

"There's no one… Did you say guten tach?"

"Nien, I said guten **tag**, but that's close enough." The worm corrected her, chuckling.

"Do you know the way through the Labyrinth?" She asked him hopefully.

"Nien, I am just a vorm."

"Oh. What kind of maze only goes straight? There's no turns!"

"Don't be silly, Frauline, you are not looking right." He nodded his head to the wall across from her, "Things are not alvays as zey seem."

"But that's just…" At his look, she stood and made her way cautiously over, hand outstretched. She met nothing but air, there **was** a passage there! "Oh thank you!" She cried, turning to the left.

"Frauline! I vouldn't go zat vay if I vere you!" The worm called out, almost anxious.

"No?" She reappeared, peering at him, "Thanks." She went to the right instead.

There was nothing but going in circles and dead ends, finally, she got to a more open area with cross shaped openings. "This is going to get confusing…" Remembering something, she pulled the tube of lipstick from her pocket and ran the tip of it along a stone, pointing up. She went straight.

"I feel like I'm going in circles." She moaned, and turned back to try a different direction when she noticed that her arrow was pointing the wrong way, "Hey! Someone's been changing my marks!"

Furious, she stormed off to the right, hoping she hadn't gone that way yet.

She met a dead end and nearly screamed, but she turned around. As she turned she felt a sickening feeling of being on a merry go round, and suddenly, there were two doors in front of her.

"Wait a minute, that was a dead end a minute ago!"

"No, that's the dead end behind you!" A head peeked up from the blue door to inform her of this. Then all four heads ducked behind the doors as they burst into fits of riotous laughter.

Seras turned her head, and sure enough, it was. "It keeps changing! What am I supposed to do?"

One of the red door's heads popped into view, "The only way out of here is to try one of these doors."

Upper Blue piped up, then, quite cheerfully, "One of them leads to the castle at the center of the Labyrinth, and the other leads to… certain death!"

They all chorus at once, "Ohhh..!"

Seras frowned, "Which one is which?"

Bottom Red eyed her, "Uh, we can't tell you."

Seras' frown deepened, "Why not?"

The Bottoms look at each other. "We don't know! But they do." They look up, at the Uppers.

Seras blinked, "Oh, then I'll ask them."

Upper Red chimed in then, "Uh, no, you can't ask us! You can only ask one of us."

Upper Blue piped in, not giving her a chance to speak, "Its in the rules! I should warn you that one of us always lies, and one of us always tells the truth. That's a rule, too." Blue looked at Red, then at Seras, winking conspiratorily, "He always lies."

Red sputtered indignantly, "I do not! I tell the truth!"

Blue gasped theatrically, "Ohh what a lie!"

The bottom heads are laughing uproariously, and Seras is tempted to kick them.

Red whined, looking hurt, "Hes the liar!"

"Alright, answer yes or no." Seras said, walking up to the red door. "Would he tell me that this door leads to the castle?"

Red ducks behind his door and seems to confer with the lower head, who then turns to Blue, the whispering continues for a while before Upper Red reappears. "Oh, uh, yes?"

Seras grinned, "Then the other door leads to the castle, and this door leads to certain death!"

The door heads gaped at her, and sputtered a bit, but Blue opened to let her through. She was so sure of herself… until she fell into the hidden pit.

"Damnit!" Seras yelped before she was suddenly… groped? Countless hands seemed to pour from the walls of the shaft as she was grabbed in some very awkward places, "Let me go! Perverts!" She squealed.

…Unfortunately, they did.

She landed in a heap, fortunately in a moss covered patch of cleared floor instead of the rubble strewn parts around her. Laughter poured down at her before the grate she fell through was shut, plunging her into darkness.

"That's not fair." Seras groaned, getting to her feet slowly.

"Nothing's ever fair here." A familiar voice echoed from the darkness before a match was struck, the firelight glinted off the pale circle of Walter's monocle as he lit a lamp, ulluminating the area with a dim light.

"Where are we?"

"An oubliette. It's where you put a person to forget about them,"

"Oh."

An awkward silence filled the room as the blonde shifted on her feet, tugging the hem of her dress shirt down self consciously.

"So, is there a way out of here?"

"Of course there is." He sounded almost offended.

"Can you show me the way out?"

He said nothing, turning away from her. "I can, but that doesn't mean I will."

Seras frowned.

'_Choose your right words.'_

"Will you show me the way out of the ounliette, Walter?" She asked in her sweetest voice, just about ready to bat her lashes at him for good effect, but he still wasn't looking her way. He sighed, looking put upon, "I suppose I must." Rummaging in his pocket, he shuffled his way over to the nearest wall, pushing some debris off the floor to reveal a plank of wood that he levered upright with some effort. The thing in his pocket was a door knob that he attached and pulled open to reveal a new corridor.

He didn't turn to look back, and she hurried forward before the door closed, only to enter an underground corridor filled with large stone faces that began rumbling 'wrong way' and other such warnings of doom. "Ignore them." Walter huffed, "False alarms."

Just then, a crystal rolled across the sandy floor, and Seras tensed as it passed them, leading the pair to an opening before landing in some beggar's cup.

"Hmm… What have we here?"

"N-nothing." Walter stuttered, taking a step back.

"Nothing?" The figure echoed, the voice changing from scratchy and dispossessed to become deeper, more familiar in an almost nightmarish quality as the Goblin King stood, discarding his disguise, "Nothing? **NOTHING?** Nothing tra la la?" He shouted, looking furious, his ginger orbs glowing with madness and pronounced canines glinting in the strange light of the tunnel. Seras jumped and Walter nearly cowered at his feet.

"Walter," he snapped, deep voice cutting, "are you helping the girl?"

"H-helping? In what way Sire?" Walter questioned, wringing his hands as though he wished her had a hat to abuse instead.

"In the sense that you're leading her to the castle!" He snarled, and kicked the squat little butler when he didn't answer soon enough.

"Hey!" Seras shouted, before realizing her mistake as his hellish eyes turned to her. She shivered, and swallowed dryly. He smirked and stalked towards her like a panther, all covered in sleek black leather that she couldn't take her eyes from.

"So, Seras," he crooned, looming over her with one gloved hand on the wall next to her head, "how are you enjoying my Labyrinth?"

Seras swallowed again, and licked her lips nervously, immediately sucking her tongue back into her mouth when she caught his eyes following the motion. "I-…it's a piece of cake." She bluffed, trying to appear brave.

He froze for a moment, and his smile turned glacial. "Really? Then how about upping the stakes, hm?" He half turned from her and pointed to a clock she hadn't realized was hanging on the wall, and began to turn his finger to the right, three full rotations. She watched in horror as three hours disappeared, "But that's not fair!" She protested, torn between wanting to slap him and wanting to cry and grovel at his feet.

He sneered, nostrils flaring, "You say that so often. I wonder what your basis for comparison is." He snapped his teeth mere inches from her nose as he backed her into the wall with his proximity alone.

He grinned ferally, and she shivered, feeling trapped. "So the Labyrinth is a piece of cake is it? Let's see how you deal with this little slice." With that he pulled back to draw his hands together and apart again, revealing a crystal before turning and throwing it at the wall. He laughed as he faded away, the sound chilling.

At the end of the hall, three pairs of red eyes opened, and a deep rumbling snarl sounded.


End file.
